They’re knocking down barriers and taking medicine to the streets. A new outreach program got started Friday in Easton.
“You really have to start with the basis and the assumption that everybody matters,” said Brett Feldman, with the Lehigh Valley Street Medicine Team.
They trudge through the leaves, up hills, and sometimes they don’t find anything.
“I thought for sure we’d find one or two tents still up,” said Tyler Rogers, executive director of Safe Harbor.
If you look closely through the trees, however, you do see a tent.
“This is the reason why not only me, but everybody got into medicine,” said Feldman.
These people are part of the medical street outreach program run by Safe Harbor in Easton. Workers, volunteers and medical staff are helping the people.
“I’m really interested in serving the underserved,” said Sarah Goodreau, a volunteer and student at DeSales University.
A grant from Lehigh Valley Health Network funds the program.
“There’s always going to be the group out there that is afraid to come down,” added Rogers. “So we are actually bring the medicine to them.”
Natasha Grimes didn’t need medical help today, but she said there are a lot of homeless people in the Easton area with medical issues.
“Flu, pneumonia, walking pneumonia,” added Grimes, a homeless person in Easton. “Last year, we actually lost someone due to walking pneumonia.”
Sometimes, further medical help is needed. Other ailments can be taken care of with the contents of a backpack.
“Lung issues, COPD, asthma, and then wound care,” said Feldman. “They have to take really good care of their feet because they are walking around every day.”
The goal is to help 15 to 20 clients a month.
“We all got into medicine because we wanted to help people and I think this kind of gets back to that,” added Feldman.
Not very many people received medical treatment the first day of the street clinic, but the word is spreading that help is available.
The medical street clinic operates every second and fourth Friday of the month.