Another step for TESP

A lot of our Facebook friends have found our latest posting interesting. So do we.

A lot of you might not have known that Shepherds of Good Hope runs a program called TESP, transitional emergency shelter program. The best way to describe it is that it's a clinic on the first floor of our shelter building. There are 49 beds and they're set aside for homeless people who come in suffering from serious medical distress.

Quite often in the past, the clients were dropped off by Ottawa Police or Ottawa Paramedics. The challenge for the paramedics was that they weren't allowed to bring patients here directly. They could treat and transport the patient to a hospital emergency room. But they just couldn't drop the patient off and leave. They had to wait with the patient until they could make the official transfer to hospital staff. Depending on how busy the ER room was, they could end up waiting hours.

Eventually the patient would be looked at and in a lot of cases transferred to Shepherds. But starting this week, paramedics can now bring these people to Shepherds without going to the hospital first. The obvious advantages are that paramedics aren't tied up at the hospital. After they drop the patient off at Shepherds, they can get back on the road to answer more calls.

There's also a huge benefit for the client. First of all, the health care we're delivering to the client is geared to meet their specific needs. With our partners Ottawa Inner City Health, the ROH, the Ottawa Hospital, VON and others, the people brought in have immediate access to nurses, a psychiatric nurse and case workers. A lot of these people are seen multiple times. But by getting dropped off at Shepherds, they develop a rapport or a bond with the staff. The other role we play is that once the person's health is stabilized, we can offer them support services, housing options, etc.

A lot of people who have come through the program in the last two years have been successfully transitioned out of the shelter system.

Folks, the hospitals do a great job, but there's no way they can deliver this sort of care and support services from an ER.

Oh, and for those of you who might be wondering about cost, we expect this week's change to save the health care system about $2 million a year. We used very conservative costs to come up with that number. If anyone needed evidence that we do more than operate a soup kitchen and a shelter, TESP is it.