Good Practice: Medical Respite Programs Offer Homeless Patients a Place to Go
“People who are experiencing homelessness are not always prioritized in terms of good [hospital] discharge planning,” Dobbins told Rewire.News. “Part of that is because there are not a lot of options for a safe place to discharge them from the hospital. [The cases have] raised awareness about … [the fact that] the shelter or the street is not a humane or appropriate place to do that.”
Medical respite, also called recuperative care, refers to short-term in-patient care for people experiencing homelessness who are too sick to recover on the streets or in a shelter, but are not sick enough to continue staying in a hospital. The programs provide an array of health services and help connect people with other resources, including long-term housing.
