Reference no: EM133793727

Question

This street medicine curriculum is a project within Venice Family Clinic's Homeless Services program to provide students and practitioners with the clinical and social tools to address the complex challenges facing people experiencing homelessness. This project is intended to build a skilled and compassionate community, so that together we can ensure that all our neighbors in need can be healthy and housed. Medicine has always been a classical mix of art + science. Nowhere has this been more present than in homeless health care and Street Medicine. Here, the science is fundamental medical knowledge and skills with an added focus to address the specific needs of our homeless neighbors. Addiction and mental illness often exacerbate their complex living conditions. As always in medicine though, this science must be delivered to real human beings with emotions and sensitivities. This is the art of Street Medicine. Within this artform, the brushes and chisels are the tools of social medicine which include motivational interviewing, a harm reduction approach, assertive engagement, a practice of trauma-informed care, and linkage to housing. Street Medicine and the home visit are not new. Physicians from the beginning have been leaving their offices to see patients where they are,