Educating the health workers of the future, and those currently working in the health sector regarding the needs of the homeless is paramount to securing a more tolerant environment for homeless people in need of treatment and care. Given that there is no state-led program for properly preparing health workers for dealing with the individual needs of homeless people, RIMAP has stepped in to change that situation with a series of sensitivity training sessions and lectures, and it is now one of our primary functions as an organisation. Over the past year, we have both designed and held two special seminars under the supervision of RIHAP (Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project) members for students of Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School, and we hope to expand this to other groups at Brown University, Emergency Medical Services personnel and other health workers across the city of Providence and the state of Rhode Island. We have also designed a training guide, to give those we encounter a more tangible set of guidelines for dealing with homeless people in their work and training, so that the needs of this hugely vulnerable group are adequately catered for.
Advocacy, Discussion & Planning
RIHAP and RIMAP advocates work closely together to advance our cause, and we spend most of our weekly meetings planning our next steps for advocating for the rights of the homeless to adequate care under the health system. We have engaged in correspondence with a number of influential medical and health professionals in the Rhode Island Deaprtment of Health, and Emergency Medical Services administrators, and we continue to partner with them to enforce a permanent cessation of discrimination and mistreatment of the homeless.
Members of RIMAP also accompany HOPE (Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere), Brown University's umbrella organisation for the rights of homeless people. Recently we have made trips to Cranston to canvas for the Homeless Bill of Rights (passed in June 2012) and for the Governor to revoke his rejection of the plan to move Harrington Hall, the State's largest congregate men's shelter, to the Gloria McDonald Center, a larger, more suitable facility.
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