Winnipeg’s new mobile clinic van aims to break down barriers to accessing health care

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Peggy

The people running a pioneering initiative bringing health care straight to Winnipeg’s homeless say they’re already making a big difference.

It’s been a full week since the city’s brand new mobile health-care clinic entered service.

The clinic, a partnership between the Manitoba government and Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg, launched as part of a pilot project which is set to run for a year. Its goal is to provide primary care to at-risk populations, including the city’s homeless.

Laiza Pacheco, director of mobile health care at the centre, said its clients face multiple barriers accessing traditional health-care settings like hospitals or clinics, including prejudice and discrimination.

“They have a lot of challenges just with systems in general.… There’s that stigma that surrounds people that are not in a place where they feel as though they can access services in the way that maybe you and I can,” Pacheco said.

“We’re going to go to where the people are.”

A woman standing in front of a white van. — Laiza Pacheco, director of mobile health care at the centre, said its clients face multiple barriers accessing traditional health-care settings like hospitals or clinics. (Ron Dhaliwal/CBC)

The clinic operates five days a week based out of a van, making set stops at community organizations and homeless encampments.

Pacheco said that so far, it has been able to connect with about 450 people — many of whom have already taken advantage of what they offer.

‘We’re here to help’

The clinic is staffed by a doctor, a nurse, a mental health crisis counsellor and an Indigenous social planner.

The van itself is stocked with wound care and medical emergency supplies — including naloxone kits to treat overdoses — contraceptives, and blood and sexually-transmitted illness testing equipment.

To protect patients’ privacy, there is signage outside indicating whenever the vehicle is occupied with a client.

“We will have [wounded] people that have been recently in an altercation with someone else.… A lot of people have chronic conditions such as diabetes that maybe they haven’t really been tending to very well. So we’re here to help them with that,” nurse Tasha Masesar said.

A woman with a mask inside the back of a van with shelves stocked with medical equipment. — Tasha Masesar said the van will help address a ‘significant, massive need.’ (Ron Dhaliwal/CBC)

“There’s such a significant, massive need.… We want to raise up the community again, so no other better way than to go and help them.”

Masesar said so far, the reception has been phenomenal.

She said that the longer the van is out there, the easier the job will get.

“I think that the biggest challenge that we anticipated initially was just ensuring that people knew that we were coming to them to help them,” Masesar said. “Having that rapport established so that they could trust us and hopefully learn to trust health care again.”

The province said the Indigenous-led initiative will be “culturally safe” and accessible.

Ceremony and healing

Connor Keeper, who as the Indigenous social planner helps van clients connect with their culture and ceremonies, said having those links with the overall community helps improve people’s mental health, and pushes them forward on the path to recovery.

At the clinic, Keeper also offers smudging, with kits readily available to any client.

“A lot of our ceremonies particularly focus on healing,” Keeper said. “It encourages them to try and become sober, and to try to stay sober, so they can attend.”

The province has set aside $1.2 million for the pilot. It says it’s part of a series of measures meant to curve an increase in HIV and sexually-transmitted and blood-borne diseases.

“We can already tell with the few days that we’ve been open that the impact is great,” Pacheco said.

“We would love to see an increase in funding so we can increase operations, mobilize another van, have more physicians, have more counsellors. And I think that reach can be increased … which is necessary.”

Mobile COVID-19 testing clinics targeted the inner city during the pandemic, but Pacheco said this is the first time a muliti-disciplinary team will be taking the road to offer primary care in Winnipeg.

A report by McGill University researchers found that in 2020, there were 29 mobile clinics offering primary care services in Canada. None were in Manitoba.