Via the Salt Lake Tribune: Homeless clinic plans to open H1N1 wing. Excerpt:
Plans are underway for an overnight ward for transient patients with H1N1.
"We don't have the ability to say, 'Get in bed and rest for five days,'" said Jennifer Hyvonen, spokeswoman for the Fourth Street Clinic, a nonprofit clinic for the homeless. "Instead they're going to go to an overcrowded shelter or they're going to go onto the street."
The clinic hopes to raise $80,000 in cash donations and $75,000 in donated supplies and labor to open the new wing by Thanksgiving. The Salt Lake Valley Public Health Department has pledged $20,000, Hyvonen said.
When patients have been diagnosed with H1N1 previously, the clinic has put them in motel rooms, making regular trips to bring them food and medication.
"It was a haphazard way of providing care, and not cost-effective," Hyvonen said.
The objective is to keep H1N1 out of shelters, where the living quarters are tight, where residents come and go daily and where many are without regular health care.
"The homeless are exposed to the elements, ... and they often go without medical services, which can affect the immune system," said Chris Croswhite, director of The Rescue Mission shelter.
To help manage the risk of H1N1, the Rescue Mission is providing hand sanitizer and napkins. A nurse has given a presentation on simple hygiene measures, such as sneezing into the cleft of the elbow.
"Some people have personal hygiene and social habits that make them more susceptible to spreading a virus," Croswhite said.
Domestic violence shelters are making similar preparations. One resident at the South Valley Sanctuary recently was diagnosed with H1N1, said Director Karla Arroyo.
She spent daytimes at a friend's house and was confined to her room at night, when other residents made dinner for her so she would not have to go to the communal kitchen. Residents have been cleaning floors, doorknobs and railings with bleach, Arroyo said.
