Providing a healthier future to vulnerable members of our community
The Health & Homelessness Interprofessional Primary Care Team (IPCT) with Thames Valley Family Health Team (TVFHT) is up and running after a great deal of work and preparation. This team began seeing clients at 602 Queens Avenue in London in January of this year.
The site is part of the City of London’s Whole of Community System Response to Health & Homelessness. The project received $1.6 million in funding from the provincial government in 2024 to create a central hub where people who are homeless or are at-risk of homelessness could have better access to primary health care. “The program is about access and equity,” says TVFHT nurse practitioner Heather Kelly, who is the program lead. “Many of our clients don’t have the luxury of worrying about good health – their priority is survival. Our job in the past year has been to create a space where they feel safe and welcome, and to build trust within the community.”
The team at 602 Queens currently has four exam rooms where they offer comprehensive primary health care services. The site also provides showers, laundry facilities, a recreation area, and food service through TVFHT’s community partners including London Inter Community Health Centre, London Cares, the Sisters of St. Joseph, and the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection.
Staff at the medical clinic don’t know what they may have to deal with from day to day. Patients often appear with a wide variety of acute and chronic health issues that can be challenging to treat.
“Life on the street leaves people very vulnerable to wounds, infections, and addiction,” Kelly says. “Our clients tend not to trust anyone, including health care providers, so they don’t or can’t go to the hospital for treatment when they should. We are building a safe place where they know they can come for help.”
Kelly and her staff are also serving patients beyond the site at 602 Queens. They regularly do outreach at partner sites such as the Salvation Army Centre of Hope and Mission Services of London, providing primary care services and helping with chronic disease management. Later this year, they will begin working from a second location at 450 Central Avenue.
Kelly says that while the work is often difficult, the rewards are worth the effort.
“We have an opportunity here to help people turn their lives around, starting with providing access to primary care,” Kelly says. “Maybe if we can help them get healthier, they can start thinking about stable housing and a future for themselves. If I could get one person thinking about a future, that’s success to me.”