RWJBarnabas Health debuted New Jersey’s first street medicine program May 19 at Trinitas Regional Medical Center to bring care and services directly to homeless people in Elizabeth, with the goal of expanding to other areas in the state to improve access to care among a particularly vulnerable population.
Through this initiative, RWJBarnabas Health will deploy a medical team into the community to meet and care for patients where they are, while also connecting them to physical, mental and behavioral health services, transportation and local clinics for long-term health solutions. The team will travel around the city in a marked van, visiting homeless shelters, transitional housing centers, and other spaces where people experiencing homelessness typically congregate.
“Our street medicine program is born from a culture that recognizes everyone, regardless of circumstance, is deserving of compassion and access to the world-class healthcare we provide,” said Mark E. Manigan, president and chief executive officer, RWJBarnabas Health. “Being the first in New Jersey to put such a focus on the immediate health-care needs of some of our most vulnerable residents is something in which RWJBarnabas Health takes tremendous pride.”
The program is intended to deliver care with a broad scope of services to meet the needs of the community, including urgent and acute care; chronic disease management and preventive care; mental health and street psychiatry; substance use support and harm reduction; service delivery methods; and care coordination strategies.
“We are proud to launch the Street Medicine Program here at Trinitas Regional Medical Center and support the Elizabeth community,” said Trinitas Regional Medical Center President and CEO Nancy DiLiegro.
“Every single day we see first-hand the impacts of homelessness on one’s physical, mental, and emotional health. This initiative strategically delivers care to those who need it most, helping intervene and prevent a health crisis that would require emergency care.”
Supported through an appropriation by the State of New Jersey, the street medicine program is part of RWJBarnabas Health’s Our Healthy Communities initiative aimed at improving health access and outcomes by addressing disparities and barriers to care.
RWJBarnabas Health’s street medicine program is one of several created by the health system to specifically serve New Jersey’s homeless population, which has reached a 10-year high according to the latest annual NJ Counts report, with nearly 14,000 unhoused statewide.
In April, RWJBarnabas Health invested $1 million to provide critical services to people experiencing homelessness in Ocean County after launching the “Gateway to Hope” program last year with NJ Transit and the City of Newark to support homeless residents at Newark Penn Station.