'Housing is healthcare'; this physician thinks she has the key to solving homelessness in Windsor-Essex

(Source: U Windsor)

Windsor-Essex has seen a continued rise in homelessness in recent years – not an isolated trend, but one that requires a regional solution.

There are currently about 850 households in Windsor-Essex experiencing homelessness.

To address the needs of this population, Doctor Jennifer Bondy, an adjunct professor in family medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, is has brought together a variety of community partners to conduct a needs assessment study.

"These are all professionals working in the field, each with their own focus, and I wanted to bring them together. When WE-Spark announced the think tanks, I saw an opportunity to create a research team," Bondy said. "The idea was to gather people from different sectors to collaborate, think ahead, and plan programs. Then we would have an embedded research team for continuous quality improvement, ensuring that what we offer truly meets the needs of the community we serve."

The first step in the plan was speaking to frontline workers and getting their feedback on what would best serve their clients.

"Overwhelmingly, they said they would like to see health-care services on-site at shelters," Bondy said.

One large reason is known barriers for those experiencing homelessness in accessing care. There is research to suggest that the homeless population is faced with stigma when accessing healthcare, resulting in mistrust of the healthcare system, and resistance to medical visits.

Additional barriers included access to transportation, and need for harm reduction, wound care, counselling and more.

"Finally, we learned that while frontline workers find it relatively easy to navigate social services, they struggle more with health care referrals," Bondy noted. "This is where we can help as health-care providers. By being on-site, we can better understand the barriers faced by both clients and workers and work to reduce these obstacles to improve follow-up care."

Partnering with the Canadian Mental Health Association Windsor-Essex for primary care team funding, funding was secured to hire more medical professionals to work in the shelter system and provide care to the clients that it serves.

According to Bondy, healthcare is a pinch point in the homelessness crisis, "If people are in poor health, and if they have a health issue that doesn't allow them to work, they're not going to be able to afford many things. Poor health can therefore lead to homelessness, and homelessness also leads to poorer health outcomes. So, it's this terrible cycle for people that ends up being hard to get out of… that's why we say housing is health care."