The Health Care for the Homeless Program (HCH) of Manchester / Mobile Community Health Team Project (MCHTP) of CMC is a “clinic without walls” located on-site at 2 locations: the New Horizons for NH, Inc. Shelter and at the Families in Transition (FIT) program. In addition, the HCH Nurse conducts outreach tours 4 days a week to the streets and smaller shelters in town, encouraging people to come to the clinic for care. HCH Clinic is in sessions daily at New Horizons and Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at FIT. Services offered include primary medical care, mental health and addiction counseling, case management, and health education. Outreach healthcare is central to the program’s philosophy and practice. The clinical team is comprised of physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, mental health and addiction counselors, social workers and program assistants. The HCH program collaborates effectively with all local healthcare providers and social service agencies, in order to best care for the more than 1,000 men, women, children, teens, and families who struggle with homelessness in Manchester, each year.
HCH Program Objectives Are:
• To ensure that homeless individuals and families receive the medical, dental, mental health, addiction, eye care and specialty care that is critical to their well-being.
• To ensure that homeless individuals and families understand how to access care and how to navigate through complicated systems at health and human service agencies.
• To promote access to housing, a living wage and health insurance through case management, life-skills training, entitlement enrollment, and vocational counseling.
• To create a system of healthcare which recognizes safe, stable housing as essential to health and recovery.
The project’s operative definition of "homelessness" includes people who have no regular nor adequate sleeping accommodations; those in precarious situations, fleeing domestic violence and unable to return to their residences; persons residing in transitional housing or temporary accommodations; and those sleeping in places neither intended nor designed for human habitation.
For more information, contact Project Director, Marianne Savarese @ 603.663.8716 or email: msavarese@cmc-nh.org.