Patient Population
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner issues public health advisories due to winter deaths caused by this condition, which occurs when body temperature drops dangerously low.
What is hypothermia?
Taking patient vitals, connecting them to resources, giving OTC medications to individuals who need it, talking to patients, offering footbaths and more.
What is DOTS' scope of practice?
This vital health factor involves having a secure, affordable place to live with a roof over your head, protecting you from extreme weather.
What is housing/shelter/home?
Driven by high stress, poor nutrition, and lack of medication access, this "silent killer" cardiovascular condition is incredibly common amongst unhoused individuals and can lead to strokes if left untreated.
What is hypertension/high blood pressure?
To build trust with an unhoused patient who feels nervous in a clinical environment, you should avoid standing over them and instead position yourself at this physical level.
What is eye-level or sitting down?
Cleveland residents are 2 to 3 times more likely than state and national averages to have unmet needs in these three basic categories: transportation, housing, and this.
What is food?
When and where we host weekly clinics.
What are Tuesday's from 6:00-8:00pm at the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry?
This two-word term describes an urban area or neighborhood where residents lack access to affordable, healthy, and fresh food choices, often leading to worse health outcomes.
What is a food desert?
Managing this metabolic disease on the street is notoriously difficult because patients lack regular meals and a safe, refrigerated place to store medications like insulin.
What is diabetes?
Rather than asking closed "Yes/No" questions like "Are you taking your medication?", you use this type of question technique, such as asking "How do you usually take your pills during the day?"
What are open ended questions?
Hundreds of homeless individuals in Cleveland are left exposed directly to sub-freezing weather because these local facilities regularly run at full capacity.
What are public shelters?
Who is Dr. Katherine Jones?
This term describes the problem that occurs when a patient's primary language differs from their doctor's, often requiring an interpreter to avoid dangerous medical misunderstandings.
What is a language barrier?
Constantly living outdoors, breathing in environmental pollutants, and facing high smoking rates make unhoused individuals highly vulnerable to chronic flares of this specific reactive airway disease.
What is asthma (or COPD)?
A patient appears hesitant to share their medical history due to past negative experiences. You demonstrate this core communication practice by repeating back what you heard in your own words to confirm understanding.
An household appliance needed for insulin or antibiotic storage. When treating unhoused patients for conditions like diabetes or infection, medical providers face major compliance challenges primarily because patients lack access to this household appliance.
What is a refrigerator?
What is Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM)?
This term describes the step-by-step statistical relationship where individuals further up the socioeconomic ladder consistently enjoy better health and longer life expectancies than those just below them.
What is the social gradient (of health)?
Because of constant walking in ill-fitting shoes, poor circulation, and a lack of clean water to wash minor scrapes, this severe bacterial skin infection is one of the top reasons street teams do field wound care.
What is cellulitis?
When explaining how to manage a wound, you ask the patient to explain the care instructions back to you in their own words. This effective communication method is known by this two-word term.
What is the Teach-Back method?
This safety-net health system, headquartered in Cleveland, partners extensively with local outreach agencies to provide street psychiatry, mobile health vans, and specialized outpatient care tailored to unhoused residents.
What is MetroHealth?
On any given night, this is the average number of men provided housing/shelter at Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry's 2100 Lakeside Avenue shelter in Cleveland.
What is 400-430 men?
This sociological framework is crucial for understanding how overlapping social identities (like race, gender, and class) interact to create systemic health inequities for an individual.
What is intersectionality?
Exposure to the elements and sleep deprivation weaken the immune system, making unhoused individuals significantly more likely to see a simple cold escalate into this severe, life-threatening lower respiratory tract infection.
What is pneumonia?
A homeless patient becomes defensive when asked about their living situation. Instead of asking "Why don't you stay in a shelter?", you use this approach that focuses on asking what has happened to them rather than what is wrong with them.
What is trauma-informed communication (or trauma-informed care)?