Connecting Canadians
Victoria mobile clinics delivers critical healthcare to those in urgent need
Jun 6, 2022
(Above) Victoria resident Garry says his own positive experience as a client reflects the Cool Aid Society ethos of helping people by accepting them for who they are. The launch of the Cool Aid Mobile Health Clinic, powered by TELUS, means the non-profit can now expand its critical outreach work in the capital region. PHOTO BY KAREN MACKENROT
Garry has seen hard times in life, but today he is filled with gratitude.
“I'm grateful to have good people who have helped me on my journey,” he says. “Because everybody has a journey to go through, right?”
It’s why he feels strongly about the launch of a high-tech mobile health clinic in his home city of Victoria.
The first Cool Aid Mobile Health Clinic, operated by the Victoria
Cool Aid Society
began operations in July 2021 in partnership with TELUS Health for Good
. Following its success, the two organizations came together again to launch a second Mobile health Clinic in July 2023. Victoria is one of 25
communities in which Health for Good mobile clinics have operated across the country since inception in 2014, collectively backed by a $13-million commitment to-date from TELUS. They serve to offer an effective model of primary care outreach to address specific needs within each community, meeting people where they are – including on the streets, at other service providers, and in a wide variety of sheltering sites.The Cool Aid Mobile Health Clinic, operated by the Victoria
Cool Aid Society
began operations in July 2021 in partnership with TELUS Health for Good
. Victoria is one of 22
communities in which Health for Good mobile clinics operate across the country, collectively backed by a $12-million commitment from TELUS. They serve to offer an effective model of primary care outreach to address specific needs within each community, meeting people where they are – including on the streets, at other service providers, and in a wide variety of sheltering sites.For Garry, it means more lives will be enhanced.
He’s been a client at
Cool Aid
since 1999, when sharing a needle led to being infected with HIV. Sober now for seven years, he currently takes medication and has an undetectable viral load, meaning he can’t transmit the virus. That feeling of being prioritized, without judgement or shaming, is what keeps Garry committed to the non-profit. It’s an experience he wants others in need to share.
“I call them my friends. They are a part of my little community,” he says of the nurses and staff.
“Who knows where I’d be in life if I didn’t have all these people helping me.”
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Care and compassion
The mobile clinics are a timely extension of Cool Aid’s work to address homelessness and addiction.
Victoria, like many urban communities in North America, is experiencing increasing challenges with homelessness and addiction -- a situation that deepened during the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2023 housing
survey
conservatively estimated some 1,650 people face homelessness nightly in the capital region. Many are also in need of health services, including primary care, harm reduction, and mental health support. Equipped with TELUS Health’s
Collaborative Health Record (CHRR)
technology, TELUS mobility services, and TELUS Wi-Fi, the mobile clinics better enable Cool Aid staff to deliver primary care to people who cannot easily access traditional medical care, yet are in urgent need.“This kind of outreach will ultimately lead to better patient outcomes,” says Mary Chudley, Cool Aid’s Director of Health and Support Services.
Wound care, for instance, may seem minor, but it’s an important function of the mobile clinic. Immediate, street-level intervention can help prevent future ER visits for more severe infection or sepsis, leading to better patient outcomes and taking pressure off the already-strained medical system.
The clinics also offer harm-reduction kits, supplements, and other supports -- all without judgement. As Chudley explains, “Some people that we have recently begun to see have not received any health services for decades because of negative interactions with the healthcare system.”
Every day, Karen Lundgren, Cool Aid Clinical Nurse Leader, sees the consequences of those bad experiences.
“People have felt so judged and stigmatized when it comes to substance use, sexual orientation, race or religion,” she says.
Connecting one-on-one with people is key to bringing them into the system.
According to Candide Dias, Coordinator of the organization’s Outreach Health Services, that connection had people approaching the van before its doors were even open. And though clients often come to the clinic for one reason, the keen eye of a nurse will notice that they need other care – often treating or dressing a wound, as well.
Candide Dias, coordinator of outreach health services at Cool Aid, says clients often come to the mobile clinic for one reason, but, after seeing a nurse, will be treated for other health concerns. And that means better healthcare outcomes for those in need. PHOTO BY KAREN MACKENROT
A need for kindness
Since the partnership with TELUS Health for Good launched in July 2021, the Cool Aid Mobile Health Clinics have supported over 25,000 visits from people who previously may not have had any care at all, and their work is not slowing down. The outreach team is kept busy offering wound care, doing blood work, and requesting diagnostic tests, among other things, stopping at locations throughout Greater Victoria, including several Cool Aid locations, the pandora corridor, SPAKEN House, Rock Bay Landing, Mustard Seed, The Rainbow Kitchen among others.
According to Lundgren, the mental health intervention and outreach in the mobile clinic has made an immediate impact. Among their first mobile clinic clients was someone who hadn’t accessed any health services for over 20 years due to mental health issues and stigma. During that first encounter, she says, “the client was started on medications for anxiety and depression, and was connected to the Counsellor at Cool Aid Community Health Centre. The client was also started on antibiotics for extensive infected wounds on his lower legs.”
Karen Lundgren, Cool Aid Clinical Nurse Leader, says connecting one-on-one with people is key to bringing them into the healthcare system. “People have felt so judged and stigmatized when it comes to substance use, sexual orientation, race or religion,” she says. PHOTO BY KAREN MACKENROT
Garry says his own experience reflects the Cool Aid ethos of helping people by accepting them for who they are. Compassionately addressing mental health is a big part of that equation.
“The community needs mental health workers on the streets trying to catch that one person who might want to clean their act up. Mental health needs to come to people – to talk and have a kind word,” he says.
The need for more kindness also drives Lundgren in her community health work.
“I am a very lucky human being who grew up in a family that was upper-middle class, and I had access to a great education, loving parents, protection. So many people do not come from a place like that,” she says.
“People would do well to reflect on their privilege, and care more about their fellow humans.”
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