Neighborhood Service Organization to Transform Concept of Community Based Healthcare with New Clinics to Provide Holistic Services for Vulnerable Populations

Detroit, Michigan--(Newsfile Corp. - August 5, 2022) -  Detroit based Neighborhood Service Organization^[1] (NSO) has announced plans to transform the concept of community based healthcare with new facilities. The first phase of the organization's Healthy Housing Campus project involved the provision of permanent supportive housing for the homeless who are suffering from chronic medical conditions. As part of the second phase of the project, NSO will be setting up the Detroit Healthy Housing Center.

This new center will act as a community based clinic to provide medical respite care for the homeless and remedy the lack of access to health care in the area. The center is being set up with the objective of playing a key role in providing whole person care for the homeless in the neighborhood.

This will be the fourth such clinic that NSO^[2] has set up in Detroit but will differ from others in that it will be a state-of-the art brand new facility that offers many services under one roof. This will be the first such Healthy Housing initiative to provide such a comprehensive service covering both emergency housing and shelter services for the homeless.

The clinic will have separate sections to provide patients with community based primary care for behavioral health issues, dental services, and case management to help homeless people with paperwork related to their social and basic needs.

NSO^[3] has also recently partnered with a federally qualified health center to provide primary health care for the community. This is important because the NSO is part of a demonstration project initiated by the US federal government called the Certified Community Behavioral Health Center.

By partnering with a federally qualified health center, NSO will be providing primary health care services in addition to behavioral health services to the homeless, who are often marginalized when it comes to primary health care and do not seek such services unless it has a significant impact on their daily life.^[4] This helps in the expansion of whole care services to everybody.

Commenting on the need for the new facility, Linda Little^[5], President and CEO of NSO^[6] (who is also a nurse and former healthcare executive) said, "This new facility will serve as a one stop care center that can provide the homeless with support related to mental health, primary health, assistance with employment and shelter if needed. Approximately 60% of homeless people in Detroit have underlying substance abuse issues and mental health issues. Homeless people are five times more likely to visit the emergency room and five times more likely to be hospitalized. 80% of these emergency room visits could have been prevented if they had better access to primary health care services in the first place."

Media Contact:Name: Linda LittleEmail: corporateaffairs@nso-mi.org^[7]

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/133005^[8]