Page 35 - 2020 Healthcare Heroes Program

HEALTHCARE HEROES OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Some of the leadership team at Friends of the Homeless, who had to quickly figure out new protocols in the spring while continuing to serve clients at the same level as before.
required was a complete shift in our mindset because our inclination and our mission has always been the same: how do we serve as many people as possible? So we wanted to continue
to serve in the same way, but we had to adopt a whole new style.”
Among the changes, picnic tables and tents were erected outdoors
— spaced apart — to accommodate distanced meal lines. Volunteers, who are instrumental in the service of FOH meals and other activities, were temporarily suspended. In the dormitories, some beds were removed, with overflow space employed in the dining room. Partitions went up, and guests were arranged
washable masks.
Meanwhile, from the pandemic’s earliest
days, before on-site testing became available, temperature screenings and interviews were conducted to alert the team to early signs, and as the situation progressed, Baystate and Mercy
“I like the fact that we work in an environm”ent that cares about people.
medical centers were quick to work with FOH on testing.
CSO also staffed and managed large tent facilities, which were erected in partnership with the city of Springfield and served as emergency accommodations in the event of positive cases (see the related story of another Healthcare
Hero, page 20). When another shelter in the city needed to close due to guests testing positive, the CSO team was able to quarantine those who had been at risk and refer those who ended up testing positive to state-run MEMA isolation sites. FOH further assisted many of those individuals once their isolation periods were completed.
Why was all this critical? Simply put, while COVID-19 has swept through homeless populations in Boston, Worcester, and other cities, homeless individuals in the Greater Springfield
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COVID-19 didn’t arrive at an ideal time, said Bill Miller, vice president of Housing and Homeless Services — not that there’s ever a good time for a global pandemic.
“We were coming out of a winter where we served more people and were more full than we had ever been in our history,” he recalled. “So
it was a tough winter, and what the pandemic
head to toe when sleeping.
Additional temporary staff were hired to more
regularly and thoroughly sanitize spaces, and hand-sanitizer stations were mounted throughout the campus. Dozens of donors and staffers designed and sewed homemade cloth masks so that each shelter guest would have reusable,
“Providing essential goods for the homeless”
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2020 HEALTHCARE HEROES