Our Street Medicine Program

Street medicine ensures health equity through access to quality medical care for Greater New Haven and Lower Naugatuck Valley’s unreached houseless population. 

Through direct and regular medical outreach, our doctors, APRNs, and physician assistants provide direct medical care in the streets, shelters, encampments, soup kitchens, and drop-in centers. The Street Medicine team bridges the gaps and barriers the houseless experience in receiving medical care through traditional means. The team’s success is driven by care over a continuum that starts by building relationships and offering companionship and respect. In doing so, we meet the patient where they are to address their unique psychosocial and health care needs.

Examples of the care provided in street medicine include but are not limited to treatment for urgent and primary care needs, harm reduction counseling and medication assisted treatment for addiction, PREP initiation, and HIV and Hep C treatment. 

Additionally, our street medicine team collaborates internally with our clinical sites and externally with other medical, behavioral health, addiction, and social service programs, meeting our patients where they are.

Team Structure

Our team goes out in the community typically with a core team of three, a medical case manager, a medical assistant or a nurse, and an advanced practice prescriber or MD. Our team also frequently includes volunteers, many with lived experience, many with medical experience. Our focus is the medical needs of our patients, and our mantra is to not compete with social service agencies but collaborate and support them as partners. Though our team does not do housing, legal services, support in food or shelter, we collaborate with the organizations that do and advocate for our patients through communication with our partners. 

For People in Need of Housing 

We will help people with vital documents and navigating them through the social service system in prep for meeting with housing case manager. The navigator can start the process for them.

Once you are assigned a housing case manager by the 211 system, our team can support you in completing applicable medical documentation if you have engaged with us for your medical care.

What Makes the Street Medicine Team Different?

Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center stands out for several reasons: 

1. Meeting the patient on the street with the care team, working on the medical needs they prioritize. 
2. Provide suboxone induction on the street as the patients become ready either conventional or micro-dosing.
3. Provide immediate transport to partnering detox when patient is ready to go, and bed is available.
4. Provide medical care to all homeless regardless of insurance status. 
5. Our collaboration with our internal and community partners, working together to meet the patients’ needs.
6. Our Volunteer Medical Corps of New Haven, started in 2015 to leverage: retired medical providers, people with lived experience, and others interested in helping our team provide medical care of those experiencing homelessness in the street. For those interested please reach out through our Facebook group Volunteer Medical Corps of New Haven, and or call (203) 503-3495  for more information.
7. Neighborhood pharmacy collaboration: In addition to the support of our own Cornell Scott Pharmacy, we are collaborating with neighborhood pharmacies to provide access to OTC medications medical supplies and other necessities of daily living to support the medical and hygiene needs of our patients. Our current partners include:

8.  Homeless Memorial Service: every year on or around December 21 we collaborate with The Trinity Church on the Green to remember those living on the street who have passed throughout the year.

9.  Overdose Awareness Day

10.  Our Maundy Podiatry Clinic (Thursday before Easter), which is a one day podiatry clinic dedicated to the homeless community population.