Rough Sleepers September book club selection

Our book club assignment for September is Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder.  Here is a summary of a model program from 1985 to the present at its website with a description of the book. Our History | Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (bhchp.org)

"2023:  Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People by Tracy Kidder is published. Kidder tells the story of Dr. Jim O’Connell, (Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program) BHCHP’s founding physician and the BHCHP Street Team as they offer medical care and friendship to “rough sleepers”, our patients living on the streets. Tracy Kidder, a Pulitzer prize-winning author followed the Street Team for 5 years resulting in this New York Times bestseller.

Rough Sleepers appears on the cover of the New York Times magazine with a 10,000-word author essay by Tracy Kidder and a photo montage of patients cared for by the BHCHP Street Team.

Barbara McInnis House respite program [in 2023] opens the Complex Addiction Treatment (CAT) team specializing in the respite care of people with active SUD using best practices from addiction medicine, harm reduction, and trauma informed models of care. This is a unique model of care: The team’s goals are 

(1) to provide effective care to respite patients at BMH who are at high risk for adverse outcomes related to drug use 

(2) to retain these patients in care at BMH to address the medical need(s) for which they were admitted and 

(3) to decrease triggers and trauma for patients in respite who are not using drugs by cohorting and better supporting patients for whom cessation of use is not an option."

Additional information

Find Immediate Homelessness Assistance | SAMHSA

Need Housing Assistance? - HUD Exchange

"SAMHSA’s SOAR program increases access to Social Security disability benefits for eligible children and adults who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have a serious mental illness, medical impairment, and/or co-occurring substance use disorder." However I found it so complex, I couldn't figure it out. Find Treatment Locators and Helplines | SAMHSA  Definitely would require a whole department of specialists. But I also looked at the number of applicants in 17 years this department has helped, and I was not impressed.

"Under federal disability rights laws, alcohol addiction, whether current or past, is typically considered a disability due to the effects it has on a person’s brain and neurological functions and is protected by the ADA. 7 On the other hand, though drug addiction is generally considered a disability, the ADA only allows protections for those in recovery and not currently engaging in illegal drug use. 7

Is Addiction a Disability? ADA Protections & Disability Benefits (americanaddictioncenters.org)

Dr. Jim O'Connell wrote a memoir in 2015. House Calls To The Homeless: A Doctor Treats Boston's Most Isolated Patients : Shots - Health News : NPR

Medicaids-Role-in-Housing-1.pdf (macpac.gov)

Thousands in Columbus are waiting for affordable, Section 8 housing (dispatch.com)

Cultural differences and Covid cases

I was browsing an NIH study on Covid in Boston which reported that most people hospitalized with it would recover. Good news, right? Well, there's a racial disparity. Covid19 disproportionately affects people of color, and the researchers found a large number of their patients were Hispanic (30 percent) or Black (10 percent). Well, that didn't look very alarming to me, and I'm not a demographer. So I took a quick look at the population of Boston. Now, some ZIP codes are 60-70% minority, but overall, the population is 28.2% black and either 17.5 or 19.7% Hispanic depending on the source. If viruses cared about equity, there would be more blacks and fewer Hispanics in Boston with Covid.

Because "Hispanic" is a made up term, people in that demographic are not a racial group, but black or white or multiracial people who either speak Spanish, or whose parents did. So checking further, I did find an article that seems to indicate black Hispanics do more poorly than white Hispanics, and overall, Hispanics use more intensive care and support than other groups. When the data diving has finally used up all the grant money, I think researchers will find a cultural element to these infection numbers. We have been warned about keeping our distance from the beginning of this viral spread, and if you have any experience outside your own neighborhood, you know that personal space differs widely among cultures. People of Latin American and Southern European countries require less personal space according to research, and Asians are comfortable with more distance and will start backing up if you get too close. Europeans (including the majority of white Americans), Asian Indians and Native Americans prefer something in the middle. So think about how viruses spread. Close up and personal. Little tiny virus particles clinging to bits of droplets expelled when breathing, talking or singing.

Obama and race relations

President Barack Obama began his administration by criticizing Boston police for responding to a break in call from a neighbor. As it turned out, the man owned the home, had forgotten his key, was trying to get in, and he was black, a friend of Obama's, Louis B. Gates of PBS. Well, I live in a condo complex of 30 units and I don't know all my neighbors, and I too would call the police if I saw a break in attempt. But Obama made it about race. And today, he has to speak out yet again after exacerbating race relations for the last 8 years.

Now we have three more police dead, after five dead in Dallas, and Obama making things worse.  I hope he doesn't decide to speak at their funeral.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/veteran-officer-rookie-baton-rouge-police-killed-article-1.2714978

http://www.reuters.com/video/2016/07/17/obama-condemns-shootings-of-police-offic?videoId=369292433&videoChannel=1

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/07/17/cleveland-police-officer-on-baton-rouge-shooting-obama-has-blood-on-his-hands/