Making healthcare accessible outside of a clinic: that is the goal of Hartford HealthCare’s Neighborhood Health Team.
Now they have a new resource to do it: a refurbished ambulance. It hit the streets providing care across the Hartford area for the first time on Tuesday.
One of the new CareVan’s first stops was on the Hartford-West Hartford line, where a woman named Kristin lives in a tent. Being homeless has been her reality for nearly five years.
“Just take it step by step. Didn't get here overnight, and it's not going to change overnight,” Kristin said. “But there are people and things that do make it get easier.”
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Yet just because she is without a home, does not mean she’s without healthcare. That is thanks to visits from Kelly Toth and Dawn Filippa, the women behind Hartford HealthCare’s Neighborhood Health Team.
“Hey lady, how are you?” Toth said, greeting Kirstin with a hug.
Kristin got an inside look at the newest member of the CareVan fleet on its first day out on the streets.
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“We were the lucky recipients of a retired ambulance out of the Central Region and Hunter’s Ambulance Service,” Toth, HHC Neighborhood Health System director, said. “So we just came into possession of it a week ago, and it's now fully outfitted to be our community outreach vehicle.”
Although the Neighborhood Health Team already has three other vehicles, the refurbished ambulance better allows them to bring items like food or hygiene supplies out into the community.
“There's still a population of people who are unable to get to see health care to get to those resources,” Dawn Filippa, HHC Neighborhood Health System manager, said. “Whether it is a trigger going down certain streets, whether they're still fearful of healthcare, they don't have the transportation, they don't have the financial means to get to us."
For Kristin, Tuesday’s visit came with a blood pressure check, food and other supplies.
“I found this beautiful scarf and I thought of you,” Filippa said, handing Kristin a purple and green knit scarf.
“When I see them. I'm running!” Kristin said about the team.
Like Kristin, about 20 other people in the Hartford area rely on visits from the CareVans.
“Just knowing that someone you know, cares enough to want to say ‘Hey, are you doing okay?’ I think that really helps develop that trust with our neighbors,” Toth said.
The drop-ins draw emotion.
“Some days are better than others, and people like you guys make it better,” Kristin told Toth.
“You're going to make me cry,” Toth responded.
A simple visit proving that a good neighbor is a found treasure.
“They make you feel like you're human,” Kristin said. “When people say they're going to come back, either they don't, or it's like you see them two months later. So when that happens, it's really like, it makes you feel good.”
The team, always reassuring that care is just a call away.
