Homeless Health Peel

With our colleagues and association supporting us, we can be our best!

NPAO Commends Homeless Health Peel for its Nurse-led Primary Care Initiative

The Nurse Practitioners Association of Ontario (NPAO) commends Homeless Health Peel (HHP) for its success in securing funding from the Government of Ontario to support a nurse-led primary care model for those at risk of and experiencing homelessness in the Region of Peel.

Read more: https://npao.org/npao-commends-homeless-health-peel-for-its-nurse-led-primary-care-initiative/

Homeless Health Peel is excited to announce that the Government of Ontario has accepted its proposal for a primary care team dedicated to those experiencing homelessness and those at risk of homelessness in the Region of Peel. With funding totalling $1,678,210, Homeless Health Peel, with its friends at Wellfort Community Health Services, will build on its existing services to provide comprehensive care to the Region’s most vulnerable.

Established as a non-profit in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Homeless Health Peel is a nurse-led service that provides primary care and specialist nursing care through a novel hub and spoke model. HHP nurses looked after patients at three separate isolation hotels, and at community drop-in centres, where they developed innovative ways of providing care within the unique environments they worked in, along with their social service partners in the
hotels and the community.

With data showing improved housing outcomes, hospital avoidance, and an overall improvement in access to care, in June 2022, the Region of Peel generously provided temporary funding to HHP and the Salvation Army to provide service at the Dundas Medical Shelter, a hub for healthcare within the shelter system, with nurses and nurse practitioners going out and providing care at community partner sites as well.

With this new funding, the silver lining of COVID-19 has resulted in something incredibly positive for our community and for the most vulnerable who continue to endure through the difficult times being faced today and in the future.

Homeless Health Peel thanks all its nurses and staff, especially the nurses that served the community bravely during the pandemic. We gratefully acknowledge our community partners, the Region of Peel, and the Salvation Army for being with us on this journey, and
we thank the Government of Ontario for this funding to help the most vulnerable of our neighbours.

This year is the 4th year we've had our "Hope for the Homeless" campaign, where students from several Peel District School Board primary schools made Holiday cards for our patients who are spending Christmas at the medical shelter. in 2020, we had 30 cards from one classroom in one school. This year we had over 750 cards from 13 classrooms across 5 schools, from kindergarten to o Grade 6!

With a generous donation from McMaster University Department of Family Medicine Jobin Varughese and the family medicine residents and faculty at William Osler Health System, we were able to add a little treat to the cards. Our PSW/Elf in Training, Precious delivered the holiday cheer to let our patients know they are loved and not forgotten.

A special thank you to all the teachers and staff that helped organize this!

Happy Holidays from all of us at HHP!

On this unique day when World Homeless Day falls of Canada's Thanksgiving Day, as we struggle through fatigue and burnout, the nurses of HHP reflect on our work and the part we play in ending homelessness.

We thank our partners, funders, and all those who support our work who join us in pledging continued efforts to reducing barriers, providing care with empathy and compassion, and renewing efforts in the fight to end homelessness.

www.felixhouse.ca

A place for us to look after our community's most vulnerable, needed now more than ever! Join us in building a space designed for the population we serve. A space that our community can be proud of. A space to show that we care about those who have been forgotten about.

This space can be built by Christmas 2022 with your help. Our community members experiencing homelessness don't have to spend the winter outside.

Donate and be a part of something amazing!

Home | Felixhouse Felix House is intended to be a safe place for these individuals to receive care from nurses and social workers as an alternate level of care to the hospital or shelter. With a focus on health stabilization, Felix House is a unique transitional housing model for those who need a different approach t...

Just in time for , filmmaker Gf Pipitone has released the short documentary on Homeless Health Peel and our work during the pandemic and where we are going. Give it a watch and show him and us some love!

https://youtu.be/xOjpphqT2Sw

Its Not What We Do, Its How We Do It (SHORT DOCUMENTARY) 2022 Follow the story of how one isolation hotel utilized covid funding to redefine how nursing is done for a population most at risk and normally ignored. Dir/Do...

Happy Nurses Week! Thank you to Grettel and her staff at Baci Gifts for putting together these beautiful baskets for us!

To our nurses and to our nursing colleagues around the world, you are loved, appreciated, and thanked for all that you are and all that you do!

Hello Friends,
We are pleased to announce that the Region of Peel has agreed to fund us FOR 19 MONTHS!

Buy your Regional Councilor a cup of coffee because they really came through for the community!

See the entire adopted recommendation here
https://pub-peelregion.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=20941

pub-peelregion.escribemeetings.com

Did you know Harriet Tubman was a nurse???
WE DID NOT!

Thank you to our NIC Kimone Rodney for sharing the rich history of Black nurses for Black History Month.
Harriet Tubman, Mary Seacole, Mary Eliza Mahoney, Adah Belle Thomas, Ernest J. Grant to name just a few.
Our nurses stand on the shoulders of Giants!

check us out on The Pointer Podcast as we discuss homelessness in Peel and what we are doing to address health inequities.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/460444/10105292

#115-Homelessness in Mississauga & Brampton - What's the Point The Pointer is an online media outlet providing world-class journalism to the cities of Brampton and Mississauga. In its weekly podcast, reporters, editors and publisher break down major issues impacting the Region of Peel and invite the voices of...

Introducing...

FELIX HOUSE!

A community residential centre for low income seniors and medically fragile homeless. Expected to open Spring 2022. If you want to get involved in this community project, DM us!

https://www.bramptonguardian.com/news-story/10558644-homeless-health-peel-looking-for-region-s-support-and-provincial-funding-for-homeless-seniors-care-centre/

Homeless Health Peel looking for Region's support and provincial funding for homeless seniors' care centre Singh told peel councillors that in order to meet its goals, Homeless Health Peel needs $1.75 million in capital funding and $3 million for operational costs.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/homeless-health-peel-funding-1.6309942

Peel health service appeals for more funding to help people experiencing homelessness | CBC News Homeless Health Peel, a primary care service run by nurses, will soon lose its COVID-19 funding from the region. It says hundreds of vulnerable people will suffer if it doesn't get more money to expand its operations.

Title vs Talent

AT HHP, we recognize that titles are also a function of privilege and that systemic oppression limits some individuals (women/Black/Indigenous) from obtaining titles that grant opportunities and fortune. So we promote individuals based on inherent talents, and actively focus on giving oppressed individuals an opportunity to show what they are truly capable of.

Meet our Nurse-in-Charge and our Operations Chief, two incredibly talented and hard working RPNs that have led our nurses (RPNs, RNs, and NPs) from the front and ensured that all our patients receive the best care possible at a time when they needed it most.

On Christmas Eve, they are at the Isolation Centre ensuring that our most vulnerable community members have a safe Christmas as they isolate from COVID (33 admissions in the last 48 hours).

We would rather follow them than someone with a privileged education.

This is how HHP overcomes systemic racism and oppression.

Merry Christmas.

Over the last 18 months of COVID, we have looked after many seniors and medically fragile individuals at our Isolation Centre because there has been no other place for them. These are individuals that were in the shelter system because of their high needs and lack of family/social supports to help them stay housed and "age in place"
Today we take possession of a new property in Brampton that we will develop into a safe space for vulnerable seniors and medically fragile individuals so that they don't age in the shelter system. We aim to provide medical care and support services to keep these individuals connected to their community in a manner while ensuring safe care and support.
Join us by supporting our work and sign out petition to have our service funded so we can look after these most vulnerable individuals in a safe space.

Currently there is no dedicated primary care services provided within Peel shelters. We have submitted a proposal to embed permanent primary care nurses within each shelter, supported by primary care and specialist nurse practitioners. This is estimated to save the health system $6million a year (not to mention cost savings for police and EMS), but more importantly, provide the care for our most vulnerable community members in a safe place where they are connected. Should this not be a thing our community should have?!?! Sign the petition and add your voice to ours!

https://www.change.org/p/government-help-homeless-health-peel-serve-the-community-with-permanent-funding-support?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_31616042_en-CA%3A3&recruiter=1032004600&recruited_by_id=1c6487a0-2d52-11ea-9d81-5933fa53c2e0&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=share_petition

We have been serving this population since before the pandemic and we need to continue long after.
We have proposed the creation of a dedicated primary care service for individuals and families experiencing homelessness, most of which do not have a Family Doctor/NP and are transient throughout our wide spread region.
We have also proposed creating a dedicated care facility for low income seniors and the medically fragile homeless because all too often these folks are ending up in the shelters and dying there or on the streets.
We have met with all levels of government with no real commitments to ensure the continuity of our service post-COVID.
Join your voice to ours by signing the petition to ensure sustained funding so that our most vulnerable community members can have the healthcare they need and deserve.
https://chng.it/RQkFRkf58w

Spare a minute to help out during these times 🙏 Help Homeless Health Peel Serve the Community with Permanent Funding Support

This is the story of our origins. Chief leads from the front!

https://thepointer.com/article/2021-12-05/new-peel-group-needs-government-support-as-critical-homeless-healthcare-funding-dries-up

New Peel group needs government support as critical homeless healthcare funding dries up New Peel group needs government support as critical homeless healthcare funding dries up

We are very proud of our hometown nursing colleague Kamal Khera taking the nursing perspective and ethos to a such a high level.
Canada's seniors are now being cared for by a nurse!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/kamal-khera-seniors-minister-1.6246666

Kamal Khera, Trudeau's youngest minister, says she'll draw on her pandemic experiences in cabinet | CBC News Last month, 32-year-old Kamal Khera became the youngest member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new cabinet, tasked with tending to Canada’s aging population as the seniors minister.

It started with 6 nurses and a dream. After an emotional rollercoaster of a year, being denied a home, questioning our purpose and need, and wondering what our future would be, we put up the sign in our new home!

We submitted a proposal to provide a dedicated nurse-led primary care service for individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Peel. This hub and spoke model uses RPNs, RN, and NPs from our service that are trained and experienced to provide the level of care needed by this population. Our proposal is backed by Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario (WERPN) Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario and Nurse Practitioners' Association of Ontario- three nursing organizations representing almost 100,000 nurses in Ontario are behind us not just for the work we do, but for how we go about it.

We exist to serve the community and as long as we have the support of the them, we will keep doing what we do for our most vulnerable and marginalized community members.
Show us some love if we have your support.

Amazing to have Minister Michael Tibollo and MPP Natalia Kusendova come check out our program and pay us some compliments. We started out as an ad hoc service in the middle of a pandemic and will soon be an established part of the community in Peel! We as a community CAN do better to serve individuals experiencing homelessness and mental health and addiction.

Honoured to tour Homeless Health Peel with MPP Natalia Kusendova .

These nurses are from various health care backgrounds, including mental health and addictions care, and have been supporting those experiencing homelessness in Peel Region throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you to every one of these nurses for their compassion and dedication. 👏👏

We have been quiet for a while.. but that's because we've been working super hard to

OFFICIALLY BECOME A NON-PROFIT!!!

and...

WE FOUND A HOME!!!

The silver lining of the COVID death and destruction will be the rise of Peel's first agency dedicated to providing primary care to individuals and families experiencing homelessness.

Follow our page to show your support and ensure that we don't disappear into history with the pandemic.

A glimpse at some of the fine nurses working in hotels looking after the most vulnerable as they recover from COVID-19. These incredible nurses do regular assessments and intervene early to keep patients out hospital and the ICU. 24/7 care right on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Happy Nurses Week!

NURSES DAY 2021!
Meet the Leadership Team that makes the dream come alive. Our 3 NICs (Nurse in Charge), and our two Lead NPs (One doubles as the Professional Practice Lead and the other pretends to be in charge!)

They lead a wonderful crew of nurses that have gone above and beyond to serve our community during the pandemic. Follow us as we will be featuring them and their new professional photos!