‘They treat me like family’: Northwell Health's Street Medicine Team brings hope to Long Island’s unhoused
The Northwell Health Street Medicine Team and the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless are bringing medical care right to patients experiencing homelessness.
A team of doctors, nurses and advocates are stepping outside hospital walls to provide care to people who are unhoused.
"People who are homeless are fighting so many battles, and medical care often does not get prioritized," says Dylan Schwarz, with the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless.
The Northwell Health Street Medicine Team and the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless are bringing medical care right to patients experiencing homelessness.
News 12 rode along with them on Thursday to meet patients in Hauppauge and Freeport.
"We're going to their safe spot. A lot of our work is about building trust," says Lead Clinician of the Street Medicine Program Mary Mahoney. "These are people that typically you would think of as your neighbors or could have been your neighbors last month. These are people that, for some unknown, foreseen circumstance in their life have now become unhoused."
For Brentwood resident Scott, a 55-year-old experiencing homelessness, access to medical care matters, even if the care is given at a gas station.
"It's hard to trust anybody out here. It really is. But this team here, it's just like, wow. It just it opened up the door for me," says Scott. "They treat me like I'm their family."
Scott sees the Street Medicine Team about once a month. His life wouldn't be the same without it.
"I just would have let it be, emergency room visit if I got really sick," he says.
Abraham Smith, of Freeport, agrees.
"It makes me feel like somebody cares," says Smith. "If they didn't, I probably would like give up and not do anything."
The Street Medicine Team says there's more to it than just medical care.
"Each client is pretty extensive, what their needs are and we spend the time with them," says Mahoney. "They feel invisible. They feel unseen. So part of building trust is making them feel seen and making them feel heard."
