Ryan Barmore is help on wheels for the indigents who can’t or won’t make the journey to the Stout Street Clinic run by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
The medical assistant is one of the regular caregivers who also drives the coalition’s sleek mobile medical clinic. Since April 2007, this über-
van — with its two exam rooms — has been on the streets about 40 hours a week, providing care for the homeless and uninsured.
It replaces the lumbering recreational vehicle that formerly served as a mobile clinic. Now people recognize the sleek van and greet Barmore as he pulls up in front of a shelter or gathering place.
“I brought my friend this week,” they will tell him as they line up to be seen.
Barmore and his colleagues — typically a physician, a medical assistant and a medical clerk — see an average of four to 10 people in a four-hour shift. Each patient is registered on the mobile clinic’s computer, which is linked to the Stout Street database.
That allows the team to keep track of the street clients, who can be difficult to monitor. Some are so resolutely independent that their medical conditions are acute by the time they surrender to an exam.
“There’s a small percentage of clients we see only in the field,” said Barmore, 24, who plans to enroll in medical school. “We try to access the spectrum of homeless people who live under bridges or who are estranged from the larger medical system. We try to build relationships as much as we can. Some people will talk to us but won’t go to the Stout Street Clinic. The advantage of our set schedule is that people know where to find us next week, or two weeks from now.”
The mobile clinic’s patients are evenly divided between males and females, including children. Most patients are between ages 20 and 55.
They show up with respiratory infections — including asthma, chest colds and sinus problems — skin and soft-tissue infections, diabetes-related problems, and other issues.
Many of the homeless men pick up day-labor jobs that leave them with knee and back injuries. Others contract viruses and fungal infections at crowded shelters.
Despite the worsening economy, the number of patients seeking help at the mobile clinic has remained steady, Barmore says. For the poorest of the poor, Wall Street’s fortune remains irrelevant.
“They’re just working to put their lives back together,” Barmore said. “Medical care is one of those things that’s easy for all of us to put off. We try to make it easier for them.”
The coalition’s goal for the mobile clinic is connecting clients with housing and other resources, along with medical care. Though some clients are familiar, there are new faces — people in crisis after being pauperized by high medical bills associated with a disease or an accident, coupled with unemployment and a repossessed house.
“People are often in a situation that’s beyond their control,” Barmore said. “They’re trying to recover from a car wreck followed by a divorce, or being unemployed, or a combination of those things and losing everything.
“But people are survivors. You would not believe what people can do in a difficult situation to get back on their feet.”
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
