Freeman street medicine program to be featured on Newsmakers

(From KGCS)

A grant funded program for training new physicians will bring healthcare to the homeless. The collaborative effort that will expand care to those who are unhoused is the focus of the next Newsmakers program.

Freeman Health System Family Medicine Program Director Dr. Barbara Miller and Freeman Grants Coordinator Lisa Nelson explain how a $2.1 million dollar federal grant will establish the Street Medicine Training and Outreach program. Freeman trained family and internal medicine resident physicians will work in rotations to apply medical and behavioral health care to the homeless population. 

Freeman is partnering with six entities including the Salvation Army and Joplin Community Clinic, which initiated pop-up mobile clinics at the Salvation Army during lunch time and proved successful. Captain Bill Middendorp explains how his facility will offer space for exams and treatments. Stephanie Brady, the executive director of the Community Clinic details how the clinics are working now with its mobile unit and medicines that it will continue to provide.

Newsmakers is airing nightly at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. beginning December 7 on KGCS-TV and will air at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, December 13 on KOAM-TV. It is also posted on the station’s YouTube channel: KGCS – Missouri Southern State University.

KGCS-TV programming can be seen on channel 21 and is also available on regional cable television systems such as Sparklight, Mediacom and Optimum Internet. The station operates as a service of the Department of Communication at Missouri Southern State University.