Street Medicine..another field of medicine!

Image source: Internet

The photo shows a homeless man and Dr. James Withers, the father of Street Medicine. Dr. Withers, is the man who founded the principles of Street Medicine, the founder of the Street Medicine Institute. I 'met' him through the seminars of the Postgraduate Program in International Medicine and Health Crisis Management.

What is Street Medicine? Street Medicine includes health and social services developed specifically to address the needs of the homeless directly in their own environment. Street Medicine's fundamental approach is to engage people living with homelessness exactly where they are and on their own terms to maximally reduce or eliminate barriers to accessing care and beyond.

Visiting people where they live - in alleys, on bridges or in urban camps - is an essential strategy for building a relationship of trust with this socially marginalized and highly vulnerable population. In this way, a high level of health care services is achieved.

Is Street Medicine necessary today? Today, Street Medicine is more relevant and necessary than ever. Immigrant, pandemic, economic impoverishment of the population, increase in homelessness, natural disasters and more. All the aforementioned problems affect a huge number of people, leaving them vulnerable in terms of their health and well-being. On the one hand, pre-existing health problems are neglected, on the other hand, new problems are created.

I would like to mention just a few examples of the application of Street Medicine from my personal experience. - Mobile units with x-ray machine in homeless populations of a large city abroad, with the aim of rapid diagnosis of patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis. - Provision of medical and pharmaceutical assistance to homeless immigrant populations to immediately cover needs due to febrile conditions in infants and children.

I will leave Street Medicine posting open so I can come back with a newer post. I just wanted to introduce you to this extremely useful and interesting specialty, with the hope that it will develop in our country as well, and that a new nursing specialty will emerge from it, that of Street Nursing.

Bibliography: streetmedicine.org