Treating Homeless: House Calls in a Park

It was a simple enough procedure, removing 14 sutures from the eyebrow of a 38-year-old man.

But it was complicated by the fact that it was performed outdoors in Hansen Dam Park in Pacoima. The lack of a sterile environment--there was no running water to wash his hands--irked Marvin G. Pettiford, a physician’s assistant with a nonprofit health-care agency.

He rinsed his hands in alcohol and quickly removed the stitches, however, saying that he had to carry on because the patients needed him.

“These people appreciate whatever you can do,” Pettiford said. “They don’t need to see credentials hanging up on a wall, and that sits well with me.”

Thursday was the second day that Pettiford and five other staff members from the Northeast Valley Health Corp. in Pacoima went to the park as part of the San Fernando Valley’s only mobile medical program for the homeless.

The team provides basic medical services, such as dispensing drugs for minor ailments and treating wounds, at the park once a week for about three hours.

“I really don’t know what I’d have done if they hadn’t come out here,” said Troy Prentic, whose eyebrow was split by a rock thrown by assailants two weeks ago. “I don’t have any money for gas to drive anywhere.”

The traveling medical staff, which visits Valley shelters five days a week as well as going to parks, is funded by a $570,000 federal grant under the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, approved by Congress in 1987. Six other health-care agencies in Los Angeles County received about $1.4 million under the act, including the Watts Health Foundation, which began operating a mobile health-care trailer in April.

In contrast to the Watts agency, the Northeast Valley Health Corp. does not have a special van, complete with an examination room and mini-pharmacy.

Instead the staff--composed of Pettiford, two administrators, a nurse and a social caseworker--arrived at the park on Foothill Boulevard in their own cars and set up folding chairs and tables in the shade.

“We could really use a van and some medical supplies,” said Fred Hernandez, the director of the project. “But we can do a lot for them with what we’ve got.”

Hernandez recruits patients for the outdoor clinic by driving to several Pacoima and Sylmar parks and telling people about the service. Coffee and doughnuts served by the medical staff are an added inducement, he said.

About 20 people have been treated in the two weeks since the outdoor clinic began operating. The medical staff hopes eventually to treat about 5,400 homeless people a year in its San Fernando and Pacoima facilities and in shelters around the Valley, as well as in parks, Hernandez said.

Respiratory and skin problems are the most common cases of the homeless treated so far in the outdoor clinic, Pettiford said. Patients who need more sophisticated treatment are referred to the Northeast Valley Health Corp.’s clinics, and Hernandez passes out free bus tickets to the needy.

4 People Treated

Maureen Blow, 37, was among the four people treated Thursday. Blow, whose wispy blond hair framed her sunburned face, complained of a chest cold, which Pettiford said was probably the result of exposure. Blow said she had been washing cars in the hot sun to make money.

As Pettiford dispensed antibiotics and a decongestant, he admonished Blow not to allow her homeless friends to take the pills. “Tell them they’re not speed, they’re not whites,” he said, referring to the decongestants’ resemblance to some street drugs.

But, much to his chagrin, Pettiford did not have sunscreen to give Blow, or insect repellent for a 16-year-old homeless boy who complained of painful mosquito bites.

“It’s a do-and-learn kind of thing,” Pettiford said. “We have to learn what they need and where they are, so we can be there for them with what they want.”

Sometimes it is discouraging to work with the homeless because their problems often stem from alcohol and drug abuse, Pettiford said. One 25-year-old man who complained of migraine headaches said he had used crack, a potent form of cocaine, the night before.

“He’ll blow the top of his head off and have a stroke,” Pettiford said. “But if we can help three out of five people, it’s worth it.”