Crain’s Cleveland Business published an op/ed letter in this week’s print and digital editions from Joseph & Mary’s Home Executive Director Beth Graham. She wrote about the importance of medical respite care for medically fragile people experiencing homelessness and the importance of local governments in supporting these vital programs.
Medical respite is acute and post-acute care for people experiencing homelessness who are too ill or frail to recover from an illness or injury on the street or in a shelter, but who do not require hospital-level care.
The full text of her letter is below or available here on the Crain’s site.
Crain’s Cleveland Business: Funding needed for medical respite care for homeless adults
by Beth Graham
Joseph & Mary’s Home Executive Director
The number of people experiencing homelessness grew every year from 2016 to 2020, now at nearly 600,000. The homeless population is also getting older and sicker. Research shows homeless people in their 50s are in worse health than folks in their 70s who have a place to live, and half of homeless adults are over 50.
Traditional shelters for people experiencing homelessness are not designed or equipped to help aging individuals recover from surgery or other acute health conditions. When medical issues arise, persons in shelter are rushed to hospital emergency departments, treated and discharged back to the shelter or the streets, starting the cycle all over again.
Medical respite is acute and post-acute care for people experiencing homelessness who are too ill or frail to recover from an illness or injury on the street or in a shelter, but who do not require hospital-level care.
Joseph’s Home began to provide medical respite for men, and received countless calls from hospital social workers asking for help for both men and women experiencing homelessness and serious medical issues. Through the hard work and the support of many, last year Joseph’s Home was able to establish Mary’s Home — an adjacent 10-bed facility for women.
Today, Joseph & Mary’s Home is Northeast Ohio’s sole provider of medical respite care for medically fragile people experiencing homelessness.
Medical respite programs share the same fundamental elements: short-term residential care that allows people experiencing homelessness the opportunity to safely recuperate, access medical care, and connect to housing and supportive services. Studies show medical respite care reduces repeat emergency department visits, decreases hospital inpatient bed days and increases permanent housing among participants. With unhoused people spending on average four more days in the hospital than their housed counterparts at a cost of $3,200 per bed per day in Ohio, medical respite is both a humane and fiscally responsible response to this gap in care.
It is no wonder that the nationwide number of medical respite programs has more than doubled in the last seven years.
Cuyahoga County has always stepped up in support of Joseph’s Home. As Mary’s Home was developed, we partnered with the county Office of Homeless Services to conduct the needs assessment, and we sought and obtained approval from the Office of Homeless Services Advisory Board, the group charged with setting program priorities. While we were hopeful through a recent programmatic RFP to expand our relationship with the county, we were unable to secure additional funding for Mary’s Home. We are thankful to receive funding for men, but need an ongoing contract to serve women, as well.
We encourage the new county administration to support this vital expansion of providing medical respite for women. At a time when millions are spent on health care for an aging chronic homeless population, funding Mary’s Home is a cost-effective solution to providing the right care to help stabilize health and secure permanent housing for a tremendously vulnerable population.
