Serving Homeless Families in Health Care Systems
Families in transition face unique challenges within the healthcare system. You can help by taking a holistic and creative approach to providing quality, compassionate care.
Our friends from the Homeless Health Initiative in Philadelphia share strategies and communication techniques for helping vulnerable families feel at ease in your care. Before you begin, check out this training video featuring the organization’s staff and volunteers.
Now explore the videos and resources below and consider how you can use the strategies in your own work.
The Challenges
Write down a few specific challenges families in shelter transition may face within the healthcare system. An example may be the lack of continuity in care or difficulty with transportation.
Then, as you watch this video, consider these questions:
- What might some concrete examples of “tools you can give right now while surviving” and “ones you can use later on when you have more control” be?
- What are some things you might say or do with parents to help instill a sense of hope for the future?
Serving Homeless Families in Health Care Systems Part 2
Families in transition face unique challenges within the healthcare system. You can help by taking a holistic and creative approach to providing quality, compassionate care.
Ideas Into Action: Circles of Care
As a healthcare provider, you’re a key member of children’s (and families’) circle of care.
Ideas Into Action: Waiting for Visits
Families experiencing homelessness often spend a lot of time in the waiting rooms of health care facilities, and parents are often overwhelmed by navigating the system that provides necessary services.
