PeaceHealth outreach

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The clinic outreach group — which normally includes a family nurse practitioner, nurse case manager, admissions counselor and peer support worker — spends several hours a week at the main hub of Community Supported Shelters, the organization that operates numerous clustered hut encampments around Eugene. The visiting team members provide some basic medical care like wound dressings and they guide individuals in need to primary medical and mental health care at the Unified Care Clinic.

Different brand of care

Unified Care Clinic treats patients who may no longer be welcome at other clinics because of behavior issues, noncompliance with medical instruction or because of drug seeking. “Drug-seeking behavior is common among all populations — it is just more stigmatized when it is a feature of someone who is unhoused or lower income,” says Alex Holmes, a nurse case manager for Unified Care Clinic.

Clinic nurse practitioner Kathy Kernan adds that patients at the Unified Care Clinic “feel they’re not judged by our team, they feel welcomed. We invite them to come in. They can grab a cup of coffee and chat with us. We have same-day appointments. We’re different from others.”

Bradley says that unlike many health care clinics, the Unified Care Clinic will treat patients even if they’re not sober or if they are in a symptomatic mental health crisis.

Clinic staff — usually the peer support specialist or case manager — assists patients in accessing long-term treatment for addiction and mental health problems and social service staff can provide referrals to housing and transportation assistance, job training programs and food aid.

Helping patients secure stable housing and addiction treatment is especially challenging because there is an affordable housing shortage in the Eugene area and wait lists for drug-dependency recovery programs. As clinic staff searches for open slots in treatment programs, Holmes says its clinicians practice harm reduction by providing “nonjudgmental care,” medications to counter opioid cravings, and counseling.

Outreach mission

Holmes says the clinic’s shelter outreach began several years ago. Clinic staff wanted to extend the clinic’s services to people who had no contact with any health provider in the Eugene area. Their first outreach was to a 29-unit transitional living community in Eugene called Opportunity Village. It gives people experiencing homelessness a place to regain a sense of community and some stability as they seek permanent housing.

When the PeaceHealth team had exhausted its list of prospective patients at Opportunity Village, staff there recommended that the clinic team connect with Community Supported Shelters. That organization has established 14 safe spot communities in the Eugene area, with a total of 144 huts. Safe spot communities are “legal, designated places for people who are without a conventional form of housing,”