WELLBEING, BEING WELL
Small things that make BIG changes in a person’s life WORDS CATHARINE RETTER
I
PHOTOS JENNIFER HARTICH
f you walked past ‘Vanessa’ in the street, you’d see a reasonably dressed person, neat, clean and tidy. So invisible is some homelessness that you couldn’t guess she’s been living in her car for some months now after her parents threw her out of home in a heartbreaking, last-ditch ‘tough love’ effort for their daughter. Vanessa knows where she can sneak in for a free shower and do her hair in a mirror (sometimes it’s in sporting clubs or other public facilities), but her mental health is so fragile that when she arranges to meet the Coast & Country Primary Care team in their brightly coloured ex-ambulance van, this writer needed to keep a discreet distance of 50 metres or so to avoid spooking her and having her miss her appointment with the HoTS medical team (Health on the Streets). Vanessa needs regular treatment for Diabetes 2 and for schizophrenia, and the team is not always confident she’ll turn up, so they try to meet on her terms. The HoTS team in the CCPC van are registered nurse, Katrina Russell, and outreach worker, Melanie Bryan. Outreach team leader, Joel Smeaton, chooses to stay in the background on this occasion to avoid overwhelming Vanessa. ‘She won’t go to a GP so we’re always very happy when she turns up to meet us,’ says Joel. ‘So much of our work is building
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Joel, Katrina and Melanie are the HoTS team on the Coast.
rapport with the clients and, through that, trust. Eighty-five per cent of people respond well to our approach. Sometimes they haven’t sought help just because they have outstanding fines they can’t pay, for fare evasion on trains or speeding tickets. We’re able to tell them that by engaging in a CCPC program, it can officially reduce their fines by about $250 per session.’ The CCPC van has cold storage for vaccinations, storage for sleeping bags, hand sanitisers, Coast Shelter personal care packs, and privacy for health assessments. ‘We work closely with other homeless organisations on the Coast, like Coast Shelter, the Uniting Doorways Program, the Department of Health, Catholic Care – they all have areas that they specialise in,’ adds Joel. ‘We regularly take blood samples to check for underlying blood-borne diseases. We check kidney, heart, lungs, iron levels, Hepatitis B and C. But we also do their NDIS applications, and try to find them accommodation.’ Because their homeless clients are least likely to visit a GP, the team also arranges for health checks that most of us take for granted: prostate checks, pap smears, mammograms, as well as psycho-social counselling. Katrina is experienced in asking the right questions. She previously worked in the justice system in prisons, which has taught her not to ask if someone has a drug or alcohol problem
