CANP Member on the Frontlines of Providing Service to the Poor
Glide, situated in the heart of San Francisco’s gritty Tenderloin neighborhood, is a haven for the homeless. Outside the shelter’s door, though it is just before noon, a group of men and women line up to wait for a bed for the night or a hot meal. Some push shopping carts packed with their belongings and hold tattered blankets, neatly rolled up. They press their backs against the wall as they try to shield themselves from the gushing rain shower soaking the street.
Hints of the state-of-the-art health center on the top floors of the onetime hotel start inside the lobby, in the form of posters and flyers announcing services ranging from free HIV testing to tai chi classes.
Patricia Dennehy, the director of Glide Health Services, has learned that low- income patients make better health decisions when providers focus on the entire person, not just the illness that landed them in the examining room. Challenges such as poverty, inadequate housing and unemployment can eventually wreak havoc on people’s health.
“We can’t take care of a complex person, who has had very little care for their whole lives, in a 10-minute visit,” says Dennehy.
Read the full story as it appeared at HealthCal.org