REACH Niagara wants homeless vaccinated soon
Physician hopes to avoid outbreaks plaguing shelters in Toronto, Ottawa
A Niagara physician who has been leading efforts to ensure homeless people in the region receive the medical care they need says his vulnerable patients should be at the top of the list for receiving COVID-19 vaccinations when they become widely available.
Because without the protection the vaccines offer, Dr. Karl Stobbe fears COVID-19 could have the same devastating impact on local homeless shelters as it has in larger centres such as Toronto and Ottawa.
Stobbe, the medical director for Regional Essential Access to Connected Healthcare (REACH) Niagara — a program providing in-person and virtual care for patients at eight facilities that provide services to homeless people, including Niagara’s isolation shelter in Niagara Falls — said the co-morbidities many homeless people suffer from increases their risk of serious illness if they are also infected with COVID-19.
“Homeless people get all the same illnesses that everybody else does and then a few more,” he said. “Their general health status tends to be poorer; their nutritional status tends to be poor. They have trouble accessing healthy food, and, of course, all the other things that go along with homelessness.”
In addition to common issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease, he said those ailments often hit homeless people at a younger age, “and when they get sick they get really sick.”
So far, there have been six people who have tested positive for COVID-19 at Niagara Region’s isolation shelter in Niagara Falls, and all six have survived.
But other cities have experienced “huge problems with infections just decimating shelters,” Stobbe said.
For instance, more than 100 residents and staff tested positive for COVID-19 after outbreaks were declared at several shelters in Ottawa, while Toronto Public Health has reported more than 770 cases linked to shelter outbreaks since the pandemic began.
“We really want to avoid that here in Niagara.”
Stobbe doesn’t want to wait until shelters here are decimated too before people within Niagara’s facilities also receive vaccinations, preferably before Out of the Cold programs wrap up for the season.
He estimated about 100 individuals are spending their nights at Out of the Cold shelters in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls — a small fraction of the 430,000 people living in the region.
Stobbe said the REACH team — comprising three doctors and five nurse practitioners — recently brought in a nurse with hospital experience as part of a plan to set up “a low-level hospital within a shelter.”
“Most cities that have the kinds of services we’re providing have a place where people can stay that are too sick to be in the shelter, but not sick enough for a hospital,” he said. “We’re in the midst of developing that.”
Another new addition to the REACH team is a counsellor brought on board to increase supports for people suffering from mental-health and addiction issues.
“We have additional funding for more supports in more shelters, but because of the increased mental-health work that COVID has brought, most people who could do this kind of work are completely maxed out,” he said.
While addressing health concerns among Niagara’s homeless population daily, Stobbe said the group is also working toward systemic changes to address homelessness in general.
“The solution to homelessness is getting people housed. It’s not medical care. We’re kind of a Band-aid.”
When Ameedah Hypolite laid eyes on the Nestlé Orchard juice boxes in a Toronto store late last year, she saw more than just vessels of sweet liquid.
They were pure nostalgia, triggering happy memories of school lunches during her early years growing up in Trinidad and Tobago. So she did what anyone would do in that moment: she snapped a pic and posted it to Instagram, telling the world how her heart skipped a beat at the sight of them.
Then she bought some juice boxes.
“It tastes like the Caribbean,” Hypolite said. “It’s cold, it’s fruit punch, it’s sweet. It tastes like home.”
It would also take on the taste of a side hustle for this full-time marketing professional.
After sharing her find on social media, Hypolite got a message from her cousin asking to buy her some of the brightly coloured juice boxes, too.
Hypolite obliged, picking up a few more edible memories, hard to find in Niagara but plentiful in the big city, and turned them into a Christmas gift basket.
“Then I thought, ‘Who else is like this? Who else misses tastes of home?’” Hypoilte recalled.
The St. Catharines resident put the question to the masses when she launched Island Treatz last month. It’s her custom gift basket business that brings Caribbean treats to people in Niagara who are hungry for a familiar taste of home, just like Hypolite was when she laid eyes those juice boxes.
Hypolite decided to market three baskets on Instagram (@island.treatz): a mini version filled with a mix of sweet and savoury snacks, including one of those business plan-inspiring juice boxes; a larger Sweet Treatz basket brimming with everything the name suggests — juice box included; and a Flavour Treatz basket packed with spices and Caribbean kitchen essentials.
“I really had the Caribbean community in mind because it brings back memories and good feelings,” Hypolite said. “It was just doing something from the heart.”
But then she started getting requests from those looking to travel with their tastebuds while being cooped up at home in a pandemic.
“They’re not able to vacation so this is the next best thing for them, possibly,” she said.
Next came the order from the friend of seasonal agricultural worker to welcome him back to a local farm. In a few short weeks,
Island Treatz had taken off in ways Hypolite hadn’t imagined and ideas for other gift baskets started coming to mind.
Still, this is more than another income stream for Hypolite, who moved with her family to Niagara from the Caribbean when she was nine. Island Treatz is a way to pass on certain tastes and traditions to her two-year-old son and another child on the way.
When Hypolite first came to Canada, she loved all the new foods available to her in her adopted homeland. Everything was a novelty, but those always come with the caveat of wearing off in time.
Reminders of home were harder to find back then, she recalled. Even now, in a more diverse St. Catharines and Niagara, some of those favourites are still elusive. But with help from her partner, Jay, who works in Mississauga, Hypolite can easily get her fix and help others do the same through Island Treatz.
“You start to miss the things you grew up with as a child and having a child of my own, and not being able to go (to Trinidad and Tobago) right now, I thought, ‘How can I introduce him to my culture?’” she said.
For those also needing an introduction to the items in her savoury baskets, Hypolite plans to produce videos showing the ways they can be used.
Other items, like the Catch bar — rice crisps covered in chocolate with a caramel-filled centre — don’t need much explanation.
Hypolite will happily describe “the piece de resistance” alongside those juice boxes in her mini and sweet baskets anyway.
“It’s this sweet, chocolatey craving,” she said. “It brings back all these memories for people from the Caribbean, whether they’re interested in a basket or not, it triggers something.”