PeaceHealth team makes connections for residents at Eugene, Oregon, shelters

By JULIE MINDA

Accessing medical and mental health care can feel like an insurmountable task for people who are unhoused and mired in addiction, mental illness or declining physical health.

A team from a PeaceHealth safety net clinic in Eugene, Oregon, is working with residents of organized homeless communities run by a nonprofit to ease their access to the health system and social services.

“We ask: ‘What are the barriers to care?’ And then we address those barriers,” says Angela Bradley, a nurse practitioner with PeaceHealth Oregon’s Unified Care Clinic in Eugene. “Most of the people we’re working with at the shelter haven’t seen a health care provider in many years.” Most of them have serious untreated medical and mental health conditions, she says.