Posted on: September 15th, 2022. By: Blue Door Staff. starmetrolandmedia.com. Featured in The Newmarket Era, Stouffville Sun Tribe, and The Vaughan Citizen.
With hospitals in nearly every major city, the need for a Health Hub in York Region dedicated to serving people experiencing homelessness may not be glaringly obvious.
Blue Door, an organization marking it’s 40th anniversary in 2022, sees daily how youth, families, and seniors experiencing homelessness are falling through the gaps.
While poor health can lead to homelessness, experiencing homelessness eats away at a person’s immune system. Without enough food, with little sleep, and the overwhelming stress of trying to meet even the most basic daily needs including where to eat, shower, or go to the washroom, a person’s health quickly declines.
As a result of poor health, people experiencing homelessness have a mortality rate 2-4 times higher than the general population.
While simply trying to survive, people encounter overwhelming barrier to medical attention and improved health including missing health cards, lacking a family doctor, immense stigma and shame, or no place to go home and recover.
Through it’s corporate citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commitment, TD Bank Group is providing generous funding for Blue Door’s new Health Hub, which is opening in the fall of 2022.
An on-site Nurse and Hospital In-Reach worker will offer lifesaving support through the Health Hub.
By streamlining health supports to improve health and housing outcomes, in collaboration with Southlake Regional Health Centre the Hospital In-Reach worker connects with people helping discharge people with no fixed address into housing and connecting them to the Nurse.
The Nurse provides basic care, education, and is vital in connecting people to community healthcare options and family doctors.
During the pandemic, at a time when good health and access to housing can mean the difference between life and death, Blue Door’s new Health Hub offers a beacon of hope and good health for our community’s most vulnerable.