Golden Valley bringing healthcare to Modesto's homeless

Amber Hamby made an appointment Thursday to see a doctor for the first time in about three years. And she needs to see one. The 18-year-old — who is living in Modesto's Mono Park — says she is pregnant based on her recent bouts of morning sickness and cramps.

Hamby will see a doctor through a new Golden Valley Health Centers' initiative, which consists of a licensed vocational nurse and a community health worker who go out in a van and work with homeless people in parks, along rivers and creeks, and the other places where they gather.

That help includes checking blood pressure and blood sugar, tending to wounds and making appointments for homeless people to see doctors and other Golden Valley healthcare providers. Golden Valley hopes eventually to add HIV and hepatitis C testing to the program's services.

"It's pretty cool," Hamby said about the program. "They don't have to help, but they choose to."

She spoke as licensed vocational nurse Hortensia Maldonado and community health worker Emely Estrada checked on her and the other homeless people in Mono Park in Modesto's airport neighborhood. Hamby said she is staying at the park with her fiancé, her mom, her mom's boyfriend and a family friend.

Maldonado and Estrada also handed out hygiene supplies, snacks and socks.

The Golden Valley initiative is a one-year pilot program funded through a $157,000 grant from Sutter Health. It started in early May, and the van is in Patterson on Mondays, Modesto on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Turlock on Wednesdays and Los Banos on Fridays.

"They are great partners and know their community very well," Kelly Brenk, Sutter Health's valley area community health manager, said about Golden Valley, "and they provide incredible healthcare to the population they serve."

Golden Valley operates clinics from Manteca to Los Banos and serves the uninsured, working poor, homeless people and other under-served people.

Golden Valley clinical education and outreach director Lise Talbott said the program aims to eliminate the barriers that can keep homeless people — even those insured through Medi-Cal — from getting medical care.

For instance, Maldonado and Estrada can drive homeless people to their appointments, and the homeless can bring their dogs, which wait for them in the van.

"We meet people where they are and help them get to the next step," Talbott said. "... We are trying to keep people out of emergency rooms and link them to primary care."

Talbott said the program has contacted about 500 homeless people and about 100 have used its services, including getting their blood pressure checked or making appointments to see a healthcare provider. But homelessness can come with challenges and difficulties and not all of the homeless have kept their appointments.

Talbott said that is expected to improve and more homeless people are expected to use the services as Maldonado and Estrada build relationships and trust with them over time.

"Patients are patients," said Maldonado, who has been a licensed vocational nurse for eight years. "I like to help to make sure their medical needs are met."

The Golden Valley program is part of a larger effort to help homeless people get services and eventually off the streets.

For instance, the program works with Stanislaus County's outreach and engagement center when it is in Modesto. A mental health worker from the center accompanied Maldonado and Estrada on Thursday.

Brenk said Sutter Health has been funding a similar program operated by WellSpace Health in Sacramento for about two years and is looking to fund more of these programs in the valley.

"Homelessness is a growing problem in all the areas we serve," she said.

This story was originally published June 23, 2018 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Golden Valley bringing healthcare to Modesto's homeless."