A mobile health van will expand its hours and cover more territory throughout the county. The homeless and the uninsured will have easier access to a primary care clinic. Service agencies will work with area hospitals to provide more counseling for addicts.
Those are among the expected results of a $625,000 federal grant awarded to Harford and Baltimore counties to help address health problems among the homeless.
The approach is to provide better care to the homeless populations in both jurisdictions before their illnesses reach critical stages and they land in a hospital emergency room, officials said.
The mobile clinic will begin providing services ranging from physicals to referrals for specialized treatment at up to six locations by the end of this month. An existing clinic at Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace will expand services.
The grant, which will be administered through Health Care for the Homeless, a Baltimore-based organization, is intended to help the counties meet health service demands in the rapidly changing suburbs.
"In the counties, a dramatic reduction in affordable housing is creating more homelessness," said Kevin Lindamood, vice president of Health Care for the Homeless. "People are being squeezed out of housing with nowhere to turn."
Homelessness puts people at risk of an array of illnesses and makes them less likely to seek help, he said.
Harford will use the funds, which became available this month, to establish more health programs for the homeless, provide additional treatment - particularly for acute illnesses - pay for specialized care, and broaden mental health and addictions services.
"In the city, services are concentrated, but in the counties, it is more difficult for the homeless to access help," Lindamood said.
Health Care for the Homeless provided services to 11,000 Marylanders last year, he said. The new effort in the two counties marks the largest expansion beyond Baltimore for Health Care for the Homeless services in nearly 20 years.
The grant will provide a boost to programs administered jointly by the Harford County Health Department and Upper Chesapeake Health, which operates hospitals in Bel Air and Havre de Grace.
"We will work with the hospital system to provide a primary care clinic through its mobile van several times a month at least six sites," said Pat Balducci, a clinical social worker who is supervisor of health services for the county Health Department.
