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Street Health Outreach & Wellness Mobile Units Offer Services to Over 50,000 New Yorkers
Oct 06, 2021
The NYC Test & Trace Corps announced today that its Street Health Outreach & Wellness (SHOW) mobile units have offered services to over 50,000 New Yorkers, with a focus on people experiencing homelessness, including COVID testing and vaccinations, medical care including wound care, mental health and substance use care, and referrals to harm reduction services.
“Our Street Health Outreach and Wellness mobile units have been able to deliver care to the City’s hardest to reach and most vulnerable communities, ensuring that thousands of homeless New Yorkers can get the help that they deserve,” said Dr. Ted Long, Executive Director of the NYC Test & Trace Corps and Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Care and Population Health at NYC Health + Hospitals. “The extension of health and social resources to people experiencing homelessness, including our street canvass teams who bring vital services to people where they are, will have a lasting impact well after the pandemic. This work continues to redefine how and where it’s possible for us to care for our patients, expanding the health care system to bring medical care and social services to all New Yorkers without exception.”
“Serving 50,000 New Yorkers through our SHOW mobile units is an incredible milestone for the City,” said Melanie Hartzog, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services. “These vans connect and complement the City’s vast outreach efforts by directly delivering vaccinations, physical health, mental health, and harm reduction services to those in need. The SHOW mobile units highlight our community level approach to build trust and deliver services in innovative and engaging ways.”
The SHOW program deploys a fleet of six mobile health units across New York City to meet people historically disconnected from a continuum of care where they are, engage them, and invite them in for care without appointments or other barriers. In addition to offering vaccinations and dual, no-cost COVID-19 and flu testing, patients are assessed for other needed care, including physical and mental health screenings and harm reduction services.
Since the program began, nearly 4,000 New Yorkers have been vaccinated and over 20,000 tests have been administered. Social workers have engaged over 10,000 people, providing consultation and referrals to housing, mental health and substance use disorder counseling, financial benefits, employment and connection to clinical care services, including the Primary Care Safety Net Clinic at NYC Health + Hospitals / Bellevue, a program designed to care for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness with medical comorbidities and/or behavioral health needs.
In addition, SHOW has facilitated over 5,000 medical consultations with specialists, RNs and paramedics, including wound care and routine wellness checks, and provided over 2,500 additional New Yorkers with medical and hygienic resources, including Hepatitis A vaccinations, Narcan kits, hygiene bags, socks and meal packages.
“The success of the SHOW project is overwhelming,” said DocGo President, Anthony Capone. “Providing high-quality healthcare to patients where and when they need it is core to DocGo’s mission, and we remain deeply committed to bringing mobile health services to our most underserved communities. The SHOW project is a credit to the vision of NYC Health + Hospitals; municipalities across the US would benefit from adopting this approach to extend healthcare to their vulnerable populations.”
In mid-September, SHOW expanded the scope of its outreach with teams of canvassers stationed at each mobile unit. The six street outreach teams include clinical staff, a paramedic and social worker who are able to canvass streets, subways and parks near the mobile units to bring resources to people where they are, including those who are disabled or otherwise not be able to reach our mobile locations. Ninety percent of people this group of on-the-ground professionals engages are New Yorkers experiencing homelessness.
SHOW mobile units are deployed to high-need areas in New York City Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM. For the most up-to-date information about mobile site locations and scheduling, please visit the Street Health Outreach & Wellness Mobile Units website.