Expanding Ottawa’s sole street youth clinic can cut down emergency room costs and improve the lives of clients, says Liette Duguay of the Ottawa Youth Services Bureau.
The bureau’s proposal, which is requesting $200,000 to $230,000 of funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health, would allow the clinic to hire a full-time nurse, regulated dental staff and expand its counselling facilities, according to Duguay, the downtown drop-in centre co-ordinator.
“These clinics are available in all big cities across Canada, just not here,” she says.
“Four years ago the clinic was funded in collaboration with the city of Ottawa as a two-year pilot project. It was very successful, but those funds ran out.”
The downtown location on Besserer st. is ideal for inner-city street youth, under the age of 24, who typically shy away from professional medical treatment. Duguay says the clinic receives approximately 18,000 visits per year, or 50 per day.
“Our clients have mentioned they want a youth-friendly clinic where they don’t need a health card and can speak freely about their relationships and problems."
With the expansion, the clinic would be able to reach more clients and treat a greater number of cases before hospital visits become necessary.
“At first it looks like a big investment, but in the long run it’s going to reduce costs because we’re doing more prevention,” says Duguay.
Janna Dickenson agrees. Being ‘street-involved’ for the past six years, Dickinson, 22, says most youth would rather put off health issues to avoid the hassle and aggravation of visiting a doctor.
“In my adolescent life, I visited the emergency room about 20 times,” she says. “Nearly all of them could have been prevented with early treatment or support.”
But Dickinson says time is money when you’re living on the street.
“I couldn’t risk taking three hours out of my day to get to a doctor, where I could have been making money to feed my animal and myself,” she says.
Instead, like many at-risk youth, Dickinson ignored what she thought was a simple chest cough.
“I had pneumonia and asthma for almost six months. I ended up in an ambulance and it was really terrifying and horrible,” she says.
“Being able to go to a clinic that knows you and doesn’t discriminate, where you have support available with people who you feel comfortable talking to – that makes a huge difference.”
The clinic’s expanded counselling facilities would also touch on what homelessness activist Jane Scharf says is the missing link in rehabilitating the homeless.
“The system is bizarrely deficient in its medical response for psychological and emotional trauma," says Scharf.
She also says, in her experience, a supportive model like the YSB proposal is much more effective in generating visible results.
“We could really reverse the downward trend with facilities like this.”
However, the pressure’s on for the YSB. With proposal decisions made in April, the bureau needs concrete support, fast. Without it, the plan will be put on the back burner for another year.
“We’d love to get this set up so we can start running our clinic to its full capacity on April 1,” says Duguay.