OGDEN, Utah — The Ogden Fire Department has a new tool to help meet people in the unsheltered community where they are. This week, the department launched a mobile outreach clinic to give immediate medical care to people experiencing homelessness.
"In our hearts, we need to love them and care about them,” said Ogden City Fire Chief Mike Slater. “And that’s the approach we took. We just want to help people get the right health care, and what we do know is taking someone to the emergency room is not always the best care for that individual."
It started off with a new initiative last year. Slater said most of the calls for service to the fire department come from the Lantern House homeless shelter. So, through state grants, the department hired a medical advocate to be on-site full-time and help with triage, medication and setting people up with the right medical care. The department said it has been successful so far.
"It's been a huge relief, especially to our staff and the clients,” said Lauren Navidomskis, the executive director of the Lantern House, "knowing that more than those service workers and the law enforcement agencies, like, there's a community that's wrapping behind them."
She also said community partnerships like these remove the burden of having to do it all from providers, so they can focus on getting people into housing and set up for success.
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Slater said this reduced the number of people transported to the hospital and has delivered effective care.
"We've housed 17 individuals of the aging community into nursing homes, so we're getting people off the street,” he added.
Through that grant, they hired another person and have a mobile clinic van.
"They're doing wound care, they're helping with doctors' appointments, they're helping get people insurance through Medicaid or Medicare,” Slater said. “The same success we've had at the homeless shelter, we're going to get out to the parks and encampments and the unsheltered that are kind of hidden, and address the same needs they have."
The Ogden Police Department also has homeless service advocates who go out with officers and help people experiencing homelessness. Slater said they are the first fire department he knows of that's piloting a clinic like this, and he hopes other cities and counties can step up to meet the needs of the unsheltered community in their neighborhoods.
Slater hopes an approach like this means people can get the right type of preventative care before a dire 911 call.
"These individuals hear so often, like, 'OK, come back next week and we'll fill out a paper to do that,'” explained Navidomskis. “And I think that this mobile clinic and this paradigm that the Ogden Police Department and Ogden Fire Department are instilling is that we can answer that the best we can in this given moment, with what I have in resources."
Slater said the goal of the clinic is to develop a holistic approach to community health.
"There's also hygiene kits, sanitation kits, blankets, warm packs, stuff that we can give them to keep them safe in this cold weather," he said.
They hope to make a difference in people's lives.
"Less people on the street — ideally, we would get people to the place they need to be with compassion and love,” Slater said.
