Homeless get needed help navigating health-care system
People with lived experience assist in GNGH emergency department
A new program in Niagara is helping homeless people navigate what can be a daunting health-care system.
Niagara Homelessness Emergency Liaison and Peer Support, known as Niagara HELPS, is a program that situates people with lived experience of homelessness as peer support navigators in the emergency department at Greater Niagara General Hospital in Niagara Falls.
It was started by a team from McMaster University, Brock University and Quest Community Health Centre.
The program grew out of research conducted by Dr. Rahat Hossain and his team through the McMaster University Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine’s Niagara campus.
Hossain said research revealed multiple barriers to accessing health care for people experiencing homelessness in Niagara.
One of the ideas that emerged was to place peer support in Niagara emergency departments — what is now Niagara HELPS.
During last week’s Niagara Falls city council meeting, politicians heard from Scott Cronkwright, a peer support navigator with Niagara HELPS, who was once homeless and addicted to opioids.
“It wasn’t until I lost everything in my life that I was able to find my way back,” he said, adding it can be easy for people to “fall through the cracks.”
“It took many, many people and families and local agencies to help me recover. This is the reason I became a peer support navigator. Being a (peer support navigator) gives me a wonderful opportunity to give back.”
Cronkwright said the lived experiences from being homeless and suffering from addiction puts him in a “unique” position to help people who find themselves in a similar situation.
He said an emergency department can be a “really challenging” place to work, and a “very scary” place to visit.
“Add on top of that, stigma and a lack of understanding to the experience and it can seem like the most impossible place to try and navigate. There are so many wonderful people, there are so many terrific organizations, that help us navigate these systems, and what we do is we give a kind and empathetic face that understands where they are, where they have been, and where they hope to end up.”
The program partners with Niagara Health and Niagara Poverty Reduction Network.
Funding comes from Niagara Community Foundation, Niagara Prosperity Initiative, United Way Niagara and Ontario Trillium Foundation, and stakeholder support including representation from additional community health, mental health and addiction, academic and other organizations. Additional planning support came from the provincial agency the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.
Niagara HELPS launched in January but was put on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It relaunched in mid- October and continues to help people experiencing homelessness who present to the GNGH emergency department.
There are challenges working with people experiencing homelessness, a population that’s usually discharged back to the street with no followup, said Hossain. However, the program’s peer support navigators have ensured almost all people experiencing homelessness are discharged to a safe bed, detox, residential program or other shelter.
Niagara HELPS is in the process of expanding the program to the emergency department at St. Catharines General Hospital. It is recruiting peer support navigators, and evaluating the program, said Hossain.
Emergency departments elsewhere are interested. A pilot is being launched in Toronto following the early success of the program, he said.
Vicky Merchant-Miller, clinical manager of the emergency department at GNGH, said Niagara HELPS has been a “wonderful addition” and has made a “positive difference” in the lives of patients.
“The navigators are also a great support to our healthcare team, and we appreciate the opportunity to work with our partners on this program to enhance the health and wellbeing of our patients.”
Shelly Cricenti, program manager at Quest, said Niagara HELPS is founded on the principles of respect and mutual understanding, and maximizes the “wealth of knowledge gained by individuals through lived experience.”
“This initiative not only offers support and system navigation for individuals experiencing homelessness while accessing services in the emergency department, but it also provides an amazing employment opportunity with a high degree of meaning and impact for those providing the service,” she said.