Background: The Kids' Shelter Health Improvement Project (Kids-SHIP) is a program at Rush Children's Hospital's pediatric clinic which provides complete medical care and follow-up to children and youth, ages 0-21, who are living in Chicago's homeless shelters. Design: Homeless shelters refer children to Kids-SHIP's Hospital-Based Clinic where they are seen by an interdisciplinary team and receive a medical evaluation, a psychosocial assessment, and a developmental or psycho-educational screening. The patients are then followed in the pediatric resident's regular primary care clinic. First year pediatric residents provide on-site medical care and/or education in the homeless shelters with our outreach pediatrician. Results: 203 children have been seen in the Kids-SHIP clinic; 42 were seen in calendar year 1998 and 30 were seen in 1999. Since the addition of the outreach pediatrician in 2000, 100 children have been seen in the Hospital-Based Clinic, 1½ times as many as in the first two years combined. In addition, the outreach pediatrician has made 1000 patient contacts in the homeless shelters. Conclusion: Rush Children's Hospital's Kids-SHIP has established a permanent medical home for Chicago's homeless children. The addition of the outreach pediatrician has served to expose pediatric residents to the social and health problems of families living in shelters as well as to increase the number of referrals to the Kids-SHIP clinic. The combined approach of Outreach, and Hospital-Based Services is a useful, if not necessary, model when caring for homeless children and training pediatric residents. (Funded by HUD/CDHS and the John Houlsby Foundation).
Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will learn how to maximize delivery of health care to homeless children and youth in shelters using a combined approach of Outreach and Hospital-Based Services.
Keywords: Homelessness, Access and Services
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.