2008 Woodie Awards
Charity provides homeless with healthcare
Issue date: 5/1/08
Health Care for the Homeless, a Maryland non-profit organization, has its niche in Baltimore.
HCH began 23 years ago as part of a national demonstration project funded by the Robert Wood Grant Foundation. HCH provides heath care and housing for the homeless, including medical care, mental health, social services and addiction treatment to more than 5,000 people in Baltimore.
The homeless served by HCH earn wages below the poverty line and 80 percent lack health insurance.
The year that the center opened, HCH served 700 homeless people in Baltimore. This past year, 110 staff members served over 6,000 of the estimated 30,000 homeless residents in Baltimore.
They benefited from a wide range of services including medical services, mental health services, addiction treatment and HIV services.
"The organization is not interested in putting Band-Aids on people and putting them back on the street but actually making a difference," Vice President of External Affairs Kevin Lindamood said.
According to the HCH Web site, about 80 percent of the homeless in the program do not have health insurance and 50 percent suffer from treatable addiction, while 35 percent are diagnosed with a mental disease and 25 percent are "dually diagnosed."
"Homelessness is a symptom of the broader problem of poverty," Kevin Lindamood added. "And the homeless we see have more than one medical problem - addiction plus medical problems."
Social workers use multiple public and private state health programs for those without health care.
"We live in a nation that is virtually alone among our industrialized partners in not providing health care as a right," Kevin Lindamood expressed his opinion on the status of American national health care, "Someone can become bankrupt because they cannot pay their medical bills."
This August, Health Care for the Homeless is expected to break ground on a brand new building at the corner of Hillens and Falls Streets in downtown Baltimore.
HCH began 23 years ago as part of a national demonstration project funded by the Robert Wood Grant Foundation. HCH provides heath care and housing for the homeless, including medical care, mental health, social services and addiction treatment to more than 5,000 people in Baltimore.
The homeless served by HCH earn wages below the poverty line and 80 percent lack health insurance.
The year that the center opened, HCH served 700 homeless people in Baltimore. This past year, 110 staff members served over 6,000 of the estimated 30,000 homeless residents in Baltimore.
They benefited from a wide range of services including medical services, mental health services, addiction treatment and HIV services.
"The organization is not interested in putting Band-Aids on people and putting them back on the street but actually making a difference," Vice President of External Affairs Kevin Lindamood said.
According to the HCH Web site, about 80 percent of the homeless in the program do not have health insurance and 50 percent suffer from treatable addiction, while 35 percent are diagnosed with a mental disease and 25 percent are "dually diagnosed."
"Homelessness is a symptom of the broader problem of poverty," Kevin Lindamood added. "And the homeless we see have more than one medical problem - addiction plus medical problems."
Social workers use multiple public and private state health programs for those without health care.
"We live in a nation that is virtually alone among our industrialized partners in not providing health care as a right," Kevin Lindamood expressed his opinion on the status of American national health care, "Someone can become bankrupt because they cannot pay their medical bills."
This August, Health Care for the Homeless is expected to break ground on a brand new building at the corner of Hillens and Falls Streets in downtown Baltimore.
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