June 12, 2005

Outreach To Homeless Gets New Wheels

By BOB BALGEMANN
rbalgemann@highlandstoday.com



 		 Highlands Today photo by BOB BALGEMANN
FROM LEFT: Bea Walsh, a registered nurse with Heartland Rural Health Network, and Rudy Reinhardt, executive director, are pleased to have this 37-foot-long motor home to help their outreach to the homeless in Highlands and Hardee counties.
 
AVON PARK — Not long ago registered nurse Bea Walsh kept her records in a cardboard box and transported them around in the back seat of her car.

Her records are still in a box but now they’re housed in a 37-foot-long motor home Heartland Rural Health Network has purchased, to enhance its outreach to the homeless in Highlands and Hardee counties.

It’s completely furnished with room for private counseling, along with such amenities as a microwave oven and a television set.

But Walsh joked that it isn’t available to employees for vacation.

Dusty’s Camper World in Bartow gave the network a deal on the motor home, which was being sold for $35.000. The bottom line price was $18,900.

Now it makes weekly trips to the New Testament Church and Mission in Sebring and to Pete’s Pharmacy in Wauchula. There, Walsh provides health screening for the homeless, with referrals for treatment or prescription services being made when necessary.

Grants have made this program possible.

The first one was for $40,000 and came to the network through the six-county Heartland Rural Consortium for the Homeless. The county’s housing coordinator, Penny Phillippi, is acting president of the new group that includes Highlands, Hardee, DeSoto, Okeechobee, Glades and Hendry counties.

Now the network is going after $120,000, spread over three years, to expand the outreach into DeSoto counties and add a part-time registered nurse, caseworkers. The money also would be used to hire a driver, who also would pilot a shuttle van to take patients to Central Florida Health Care clinics in Avon Park and Wauchula.

In all, the consortium is seeking about $500,000 in federal funding for the following:

  • Friends of Highlands Village, an assisted living facility in Sebring, $200,000 to build 10 apartments for the homeless.
  • Heartland Rural Health Network to expand the outreach program.
  • To supplement the six-county homeless management information system, $42,000.
  • The old Beachfront restaurant, bar and motel in Avon Park, $200,000 for seven apartments that would be operated as a detoxification center for single men.
Phillippi said the Beachfront proposal was the last to be received so if the consortium gets its hoped-for $500,000, the Wilson project would get substantially less than $200,000.

 

Some Sad Stories

Walsh in her visits to Highlands and Hardee counties already has 70 names to enter into the HMIS data base.

Some are homeless and living with relatives; some are in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers who soon will be homeless. She said a few of the 70 are single women with children. Most are older but not eligible for Medicare. They make too much money to be eligible for Medicaid.

Walsh told the story of one woman who makes about $1,000 a month. She spend more than $500 of that on prescriptions but isn’t eligible for Medicaid assistance. A pharmacist told her to get one more prescription and she would be eligible for the Cost of Share program, which requires that you spend 60 percent of your monthly income on medications.

“Her question was: ‘What do I need with another prescription?’” Walsh recalled.

This story can be found at: http://highlands.tbo.com/news/MGBH3A69U9E.html