Health Care for the Homeless

For the past 30 years, the Healthcare for the Homeless Program has addressed the health needs of homeless people in Western Massachusetts, defined as a special vulnerable population by the Health Resources and Services Administration. This program defines homelessness in the broadest terms to assist the greatest number of people in need of care, including those living outside, in shelters, in treatment programs, doubled up on someone else's couch, in motels, or otherwise vulnerable to unstable housing. Today, the mobile, 20-member HCH clinical team follows a patient-centered model of health care, providing assessment, intervention, referrals, follow-up and disease management education.