SAN ANTONIO – When you think of the doctor’s office, it probably isn’t one on wheels. However, that’s precisely what Corazon Ministries had in mind when creating its new mobile medical unit.
“We’re going to meet people where they’re at,” said Erika Borrego, president and CEO of Corazon Ministries. “We’re going to try to make sure that they have the same access to health care as everyone else.”
Corazon Ministries unveiled its new mobile medical unit on Friday. The vehicle will be used to provide health services to people without shelter in San Antonio.
Borrego said it’s a project that’s been in the works for roughly two years.
“We’re going to save lives and keep people out of hospitals,” Borrego said. “We’ll be able to provide for our homeless family and the community.”
The City of San Antonio and Centro San Antonio helped secure funding for the mobile medical unit from the First Day Foundation. The foundation also provided the vehicle itself.
Corazon Ministries will staff outreach workers on the unit. Be Well Texas and SA Street Medicine will staff and support the health professionals.
Jennifer Potter, the vice president for Research and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences at UT Health San Antonio, said this partnership shows a dedication to helping people without shelter across the city.
“We’re taking health care to the individuals at the moment of time most need,” Potter said. “The sooner we can get folks in, the sooner we can help.”
Potter is also the director of Be Well Texas. She sees this mobile medical unit as a way to improve San Antonio’s health service system.
Using this unit, “we might prevent a health problem from happening down the line,” Potter said. That could “prevent an EMS transport, that could prevent a hospitalization and that could prevent loss of life,” she said.
John, a man currently experiencing homelessness, said he felt relief learning about the unit.
“It’s very hard,” John said. “I don’t have nobody to turn to. I have no family.”
He’s not alone.
“Homeless people need medical attention,” Kim said, a woman experiencing homelessness. “They can’t get to the hospitals. They need someone that can come to them. ”
John and Kim told KSAT not to share their last names or show their faces, but they wanted us to share their stories, knowing that thousands of other people in San Antonio deal with similar struggles.
The latest point-in-time count estimated San Antonio’s unsheltered population to be 3,398.
The mobile medical unit should roll out in April. The goal is to get the unit on the ground six days a week and cover 45 monthly encampments.
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