BOB
I have been coming to Helping Hands Clinic for approximately a year and a half. I heard about it through word of mouth. I don’t quite remember who the individual was. I first came to the clinic because I had a chest and throat infection. I’ve also used the psychiatric services here. They try to get to know you and see if you have any problems that affect you emotionally. At the time, I had been depressed because of the death of a good friend of mine, and it sort of ran over into my everyday life. I kept thinking about it. So they helped me out by giving me some medication. For a while it seemed to mellow the symptoms and then eventually I was able to get off the medication and not take it anymore. If I wouldn’t have come here, I’m not sure where I would have gotten the medication. I’m really not too knowledgeable on various programs that are given for things like that but I would have tried.

I think Helping Hands Clinic is wonderful. I think it’s great. I think it’s a great way for people who are on the streets to come and get some care that they need. They seem to get the basics. I think it’s a good thing. And if they’re sick, the doctors help them out and give them medication.

My role as a volunteer now is to make sure everybody is taken care of and ask them if they need any particular items.

There is a stigma in a lot of people’s minds that if you are mentally ill you should be put away in some hospital, when the truth of the matter is everyone has emotional problems and from time to time they overwhelm us. I don’t think its something people should be prejudiced against; it’s a fact of life.
 

RANDY
We started small, one night a week for a couple hours, and have continued that over the years. After about a year and a half of medical care we had a psychiatrist from the University join us, Dr. Christensen. He started providing psychiatric care every other Monday night and he involved the residents in that early on. That continues today, but he moved on. There’s been a new group of residents who have come in every couple years. So we provide both medical care and psychiatric care at this point.

We have offered different things over the years based on what type of volunteers we have coming in. One time we had a barber who came in and cut hair and that was real popular--shaving beards, cutting hair. I’d like to do that again, if I could find a volunteer. I’m sure they’re out there; it’s just getting the word out. We had a foot doctor, a podiatrist, who heard about us. He came in with half of his office. They setup in a corner and provided foot care for three years. But then he was diagnosed with a terminal illness and that ended his involvement. We’ve had people who come down and help with giving out the personal hygiene items—soap, shampoo, deodorant, socks, shoes and clothes.

The clinic had a scripture verse right from the start that gave us our direction, Deuteronomy 15:11—“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open handed to your brothers and unto the poor of the land.” We had that openhandedness from the start and the “Helping Hands” title really fit. An older gentleman drew a logo for us in Latin that translated to “hands that help.” That was pretty nice. That has been the approach all the way along--to give, give, give. Most of these people don’t have much of anything--let alone healthcare. We’ve always tried to give them the healthcare they need, but also to have it be a giving atmosphere where volunteers can spend time with some of these people. The other scripture verse after a few years into it was Matthew 25 where Christ talks about “I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” And the end of that is “when you have done it under the least of these, you have done it under me.” That’s Christ there if you can truly believe that. I have read some Mother Teresa who really said it well. She talks about how Christ comes in the disguise of the poor and the homeless and the alcoholic and the mentally ill. And, boy, once you start seeing them there, it’s very real. The idea being that most of these people have been isolated and rejected and ignored, maybe not all their life, but at least during the time that they have had problems. The idea is to give them some sense of acceptance and to treat them with some respect and dignity. We try to do that. It sometimes can be a difficult population to work with. Sometimes it’s not so easy seeing Christ there when they’re intoxicated, loud or demanding. But still we try to accept people as they come in and meet the needs that we can meet.

Right from the beginning we have been supported strictly on donations from individual groups and organizations. We’ll get the ten, fifteen, twenty-five dollar donations, and sometimes a little more. At Christmas time, folks tend to give a little more. We’ve gotten a few larger donations over the years. The VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) was a big supporter when I was still employed at the VA. They gave us a few larger donations--two, three, or four thousand dollars at a time. The UF medical guild was very helpful for three years in a row with some larger donations. There have also been a couple churches in particular that have been long-term supporters. So, it’s pretty much been just donations over time. Our costs have increased through the years. The biggest costs as you can guess are medications, eye exams, and eyeglasses. We are pretty much the only source of funding for eye care for the homeless in town. If you’re an Alachua county resident you can get help through social services, but if you’re not a resident they don’t really offer much. Early on, annual costs were a few thousand dollars a year. Last year, we had about ten thousand dollars in expenses. It’s not a lot of money, but we use it well. We have pretty much been low overhead all the way along, because we have been based at other locations.

It has always been volunteers who have provided the care. These are health care professionals that we use as providers—physicians, nurse practitioners, RN’s, and other types. We have folks that help us with intake interviews and doing the record work. We even have folks that bake cookies and pass them around which is nice; I think people appreciate that. Actually involving some of the clients in some of the clinic activities started back in ’96. At the clinic, there are some folks that don’t really have healthcare needs at the time of the clinic visit, but they want to come down and be around what’s going on. Part of the time, or most of the time they may be able to get something for themselves—soap, shampoo or a pair of shoes. There’s always been this group that has kind of been around, so I thought, “let’s put them to work.” It was a combination of them wanting to help and us needing the help to a certain extent. Right now Henry is one of the main helpers. Henry has come a long way over the years. I do think it gives them some sense of contributing to something. It’s back to the idea that these folks are human, like we are. They want to be recognized. They want to be valued. They want to have something to contribute.

Our current space right now was kind of an emergency move. It’s working out, but I would really like to have a permanent space where we could have room to expand. Besides the healthcare, a little more case management could be provided to the group--help finding jobs, and housing. I’d also like to see some recreation. I’d like to start some kind of social club one night a week for a couple hours. And if you had a place with a pool table, you could play some music, have some recreation, and have some soda and chips. The idea being, again, just trying to treat people as normal individuals. We started with the Super Bowl party five years ago. The whole idea there is that you have millions and millions of people watching this game and then you have this small group that doesn’t have homes to sit and watch it in. The number of folks attending has increased with each year. It’s nothing special, but it’s just a chance to provide them with an opportunity to do something that everyone else is doing.

If you’re homeless and a veteran you’re at an advantage because there are more resources. If you’re staying at St. Francis house or the Salvation Army you’re able to get some case management help. But, if you’re just on the streets, there’s just not a whole lot available. So what I’m thinking is some kind of support network that would help with more of those types of services for the non-veteran population.