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| Happy Pride! Let's Celebrate by Ensuring Safe, Affirming Health Care for LGBTQIA+ Consumers
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Each June we celebrate Pride to honor the diversity and resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals and the impact they’ve have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally.
Members of the LGBTQIA+ community still face discrimination in many areas of their lives, in particular housing status. LGBTQIA+ individuals, especially youth, disproportionately experience homelessness and face difficulty finding and sustaining support services, often due to stigma and harassment.
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, “Some transgender individuals have even been turned away from shelters solely due to their gender identity, or have been subjected to verbal, physical, and sexual abuse when forced to stay with members of the sex they were assigned at birth (especially in the case of transgender women).”
Check out the link below for a roundup of Council and partner resources regarding health and homelessness among LGBTQIA+ communities.
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| Coming Soon: Medical Respite Certification
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As the field of medical respite care (MRC) continues its rapid growth and evolution, there's an increasing need to clearly define characteristics, quality standards, and oversight of MRC programs.
As the preeminent entity dedicated to expanding access to high-quality medical respite care nationwide, the National Institute for Medical Respite Care, a special program of NHCHC, has designed a voluntary certification process built on robust stakeholder input and a nationally recognized Framework for Medical Respite Care Programs.
The process is designed to be supportive and collaborative, with NIMRC offering guidance, resources, technical assistance, and peer connections. Participating programs will have the opportunity to enhance the care they provide, strengthen partnerships, promote their work, maximize impact, and elevate the MRC field.
We field tested the certification process in 2023 with five participating programs, each of which realized substantial improvements in their fidelity to the Standards of Medical Respite Care. We're excited to pilot the certification process this summer with 10 MRC programs.
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| Time to Renew Your Council Membership!
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Last year the Council transitioned to a fiscal year membership cycle (July 1-June 30), which means it's officially membership renewal season!
Beginning May 31, 2024, renewal emails will be sent to the primary contact for each organizational member. The email "sender" will be NHCHC Membership.
Please renew your membership before July 1 to avoid a lapse in access to our member-only benefits, including discounted conference registration, access to our job board, the ability to sit on NHCHC committees and networks, and much more! As a reminder, these benefits are extended to all staff of the organizational member.
If you have questions about your renewal or do not receive a renewal email, please reach out to our Membership Team. Thank you for continuing to be part of our community. You help make what we do possible!
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| Join Us for the CA Recuperative Care Symposium
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NIMRC is excited to showcase promising practices, program models, and examples of leadership at this monumental event celebrating recuperative care services in California.
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Upcoming Webinars
June 18: Having a Seat at the Table
5:30 p.m. CDT
The Ellen Dailey Advocacy Committee (part of the National Consumer Advisory Board) and the Street Medicine Institute Student Coalition invite students and leaders with lived experience of homelessness to join this discussion about the impacts of street medicine and areas for improvement in the field. All are welcome to this session regardless of their extent of experience with street medicine. ✅ REGISTER FOR THIS WEBINAR
June 26: RCPN Coffee Chat — Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in Medical Respite
2 p.m. CDT
Medical respite care is the incredible opportunity to provide space for healing and recuperation. However, because of the many medical and behavioral health needs that are a result of homelessness combined with a lack of community resources, programs may be faced with challenging decisions and ethical dilemmas. Often in these cases, there is not a clear-cut pathway or decision, but instead programs and staff must carefully consider options that manage the safety and health of all medical respite clients and staff. This Coffee Chat presents an opportunity for the medical respite community to come together to discuss ethical dilemmas that can present with programs, and identify strategies to support staff in addressing these dilemmas through collaboration. ✅ REGISTER FOR THIS COFFEE CHAT
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New Shelter Health Toolkit Includes Resources and Strategies for Building Strong Partnerships
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Shelter health is a broad term that encompasses both the health of the individuals residing in that shelter as well as the environmental factors that contribute to the health and well-being of those who reside and work there. Improving shelter health requires increasing residents' access to health care services — medical, mental health, and substance use — while also planning for and responding to events that affect the overall health of everyone in the facility.
Health centers, especially Health Care for the Homeless providers, are uniquely positioned to engage with shelters to provide care for their residents and to develop procedures, policies, and response plans to expected and unforeseen health concerns.
Our new toolkit contains resources health centers and shelters may use to improve access to primary care for people experiencing homelessness and identify strategies to create strong partnerships between shelters, health centers, and local health departments.
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New Substance Use Guidelines Provide Harm Reduction-Based Supports for Consumers
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The Council's new Substance Use Guidelines are brief substance-specific guidelines intended for use by anyone who is a consumer of services or a service provider working with people experiencing homelessness and people who use drugs.
The guidelines are a collection of printable PDFs that can be used as individual documents or as a unified resource. Each guideline provides information on the substance covered, outlines how experiences of homelessness might impact experiences of use, access to treatment, and overall health, and provides harm reduction-based supports and resources that can be utilized by service providers across roles and settings.
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Did We Miss You at HCH2024?Save the dates for May 12-15, 2025, when we'll return to Baltimore for the annual National Health Care for the Homeless Conference & Policy Symposium.
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| Resources
Recent webinars, publications, issue briefs, and other relevant information for Council members and friends
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| Open HCH Positions
- Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, Health Care for the Homeless | Houston, TX
- Caseworker, Preble Street | Portland, ME
- HealthWorks ACT Program Manager, Healthworks | Brattleboro, VT
- Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner, Seattle King County Mobile Medical Program | Seattle, WA
- Public Health Nurse, Seattle King County Mobile Medical Program | Seattle, WA
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Follow us on social media for the most up-to-date Council news!
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National Health Care for the Homeless Council
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| Grounded in human rights and social justice, the National Health Care for the Homeless Council's mission is to build an equitable, high-quality health care system through training, research, and advocacy in the movement to end homelessness.
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