Dr. Randy Christensen: "Ask Me Why I Hurt"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-05-05/dr-randy-christensen-ask-me-why-i-hurt
Troy Aossey
More than one million children in the U.S.today are homeless. As a result, many of them lack regular health care. Ten years ago, a pediatrician in Phoenix, Arizona became the first to run his hospital’s mobile medical clinic – a doctor’s office on wheels. His goal was to help homeless children get the medical attention they need. Their problems –from sexually transmitted diseases to infections from living outdoors – are often very different than those of other children. The converted Winnebago known as “Big Blue” has now served almost 7,000 children. Health care challenges facing homeless children in America.
Guests
Dr. Randy Christensen
staff physician at Phoenix Children's Hospital and medical director of Crews'n Healthmobile, a mobile medical clinic that provides health care to homeless children
Author Extra: Randy Christensen Answers Questions
Dr. Christensen stayed after the show to answer a few more questions.
Q: I haven't heard anything mentioned about the percentage of kids on the street who identify as Gay Lesbian Bisexual or Transgender. Do you find that this is an issue in Grand Rapids as it is in Cleveland? Haven’t done a recent report on GLBT percentages but off the top of my head I suspect about 20% of the adolescent population on the streets. Do you provide STD testing, HIV testing, and education regarding condom use? Is there anyone on your staff who is versed in working with this population?
- From Katherine via email
A: We do indeed do STI testing, including HIV, and educate on safe sex practices including condoms. All clinical staff is pretty comfortable with the topic and we use a modified HEADSS questionnaire form (this is an adolescent risk assessment).
Q: How do you deal with the inescapable recognition that poverty is at the root of most of the social problems you're dealing with and poverty appears to be institutionalized in this country?
A: I choose to stand up and tell others the stories. I choose to be an advocate and hopefully I can get others to listen and eventually to act. That’s why I keep doing this job.
Q: I was thinking that the house call might make a come back if medical professionals can turn it around. That is to say that I believe that health care reform should start from the people on the inside, not the bureaucracy. I was hoping there might be a movement in what I now call the "Medical Industry" to go back to a more personal healthcare experience. Thoughts? - From Ian via Facebook
A: I think that in the beginning the term “health care reform” meant that we would push medicine towards an “evidenced based/primary care/holistic/medical home” focused way of caring for patients. Unfortunately this has come to mean so many other things based largely on political beliefs. I hope that in the end we truly spend some time looking at the way we deliver health care and maybe there is something to learn from the old traditions of house calls.
Program Highlights
Dr. Christensen's Mobile Health Care for the Homeless
For the past ten years, Dr. Randy Christensen has run his "clinic on wheels" that focuses on treating homeless children in Phoenix, Ariz.
Working with underserved populations is an idea that Dr. Christensen says he grew up with. He can remember his parents struggling with finances, but they always found a way to try to share what they had with their neighbors and their community.
"Just from a very young age, I can remember my mom saving up dimes so she could help somebody at the end of the year. And the truth is probably $35 or something like that. But she wanted somebody else to be helped in that way," he said.
Number of Homeless Families Increasing
According to Dr. Christensen, families are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population. In Arizona alone, there are an estimated 5,000 - 10,000 homeless children, the majority of whom live in Maricopa County.
Every year, Christensen says, the number of medical visits his mobile clinic conducts increases.
Diane asked the doctor how his mobile clinic finds the youths it treats. "We're very consistent," he replied. "We try to build relationships, collaborations with many of the organizations out there, whether it be a faith-based organization or a state organization." Christensen says that he and his colleagues are trying to become a true comprehensive program that also treats adults when necessary.
Memorable Patients
Dr. Christensen tells the story of one young girl who came to the clinic with a bad, persistent ear ache. Christensen examined her to find a small, dead cockroach in her ear.
"It happens relatively frequently," Christensen said, because these children are sleeping on floors in run-down or abandoned buildings where cockroaches thrive. The little girl took the basin with the cockroach Christensen had extracted and was going around proudly showing it off to others saying, "Look what he took out!"
"And then, of course, she comes and gives me this big huge hug," Dr. Christensen said.
Read an Excerpt
Excerpted from Ask Me Why I Hurt: The Kids Nobody Wants and the Doctor Who Heals Them. Copyright @ 2011 by Dr. Randy Christensen. Reprinted by Permission of Broadway Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York:
Comments
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Thank you, Dr. Randy (and your wife) for what you have done and what you will do in the future! You have inspired me to look for something like this around here.
Thanks, Diane, for your great shows!!
I worked in an out-patient teenage clinic in a Mid-Western Children's Hospital in the mid-1970s and received a first-rate education on the struggles of teenagers in a poor urban environment. Since many affluent families did not want their 'family secrets' known by their local suburban physicians, we also treated many suburban teenagers. It was an eye-opening experience to learn of the dysfunction of many families and the type of sexual and physical abuse suffered by teenagers. The stress level was high for the staff and, if not handled correctly, the staff was at risk for burn-out, depression, and anxiety. I applaud the doctors, nurses, social workers, and the other staff that provide these needed medical services to children and teens. For many young people, they are their only link to normality.
In a single payer system, all these individuals would need to do is show up at a healthcare facility. But that is what civilized countries, with "not for profit" healthcare systems would do. We, unfortunately, are not there YET.
AS A FORMER PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER IN WEST AFRICA I AM STRUCK BY THE SIMILARITIES IN CONDITIONS OF EXTREME POVERTY THAT EXACERBATE THE HEALTH OF PEOPLE.
THIS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? IT IS UNCONSCIONABLE AND UN-AMERICAN THAT U.S. CITIZENS ARE LIVING IN THESE CONDITIONS.
Dr. Christensen, thank you for all you do. You made the comment that "unfortunately most of the homeless children are in Maricopa and Pima counties." I am a social worker in Pinal County, AZ and it's disheartening to see how few services there are OUTSIDE of the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas.
Thank you Dr. Christensen, and your staff, and your family, for all you do to help those kids.
It is very sad state of affairs that America has (too) much need of your services.
When I heard the comment that medical companies don't donate very much in the way of medicines, etc., because of "too much paperwork......", I was very saddened. They have to know that there is a HUGE need! Wouldn't it be a tax write-off for them? I hope the real reason is that they are more worried about the liability issues, and not "too much paperwork". That would be very sad, indeed.
Thank you Diane and Dr. Randy. I am from Boston and still see the Bridge Over Troubled Waters Mobile Medical Van traveling around the city. It is interesting to know that they were your inspiration while you were at Tufts. Thank goodness for people like you and organizations like Bridge for serving homeless youth. The work is important.
Oh my, I think this was a swing and a miss, Diane. This was far too much about Christensen and curiously little about the kids he cares for. The segments about the stress on his marriage, and the way you didn't press him for details about the kids or his financial situation seemed very out of character. Much too breathless, much too shallow. I have done volunteer work for disadvantaged kids, and I can tell you that the professionals who are dedicated to helping them are generally not precious, Mr. Rogers types like Christensen. The are cut from much tougher and less self-important cloth.
I will continue to listen and I'm sure be a fan, but this was a disappointment.
Dr Randy,
I love what you are doing for Gods children, I have been a big fan for a long time. My name is Robert with Hearts and Hooves of Arizona Ranch and Outreach. Heartsandhoovesaz.org
Our mission is to provide a Loving, Long Term Christian environment for children who are victims of crisis (homeless or abandoned) and currently separated from and/or unable to reside with their biological parents or kin. We will provide love, food, shelter, education, and life skills for success. Our hope is that through relationships with our staff, and animals they will be able to call our ranch "Home."
Our future plan includes housing 70-100 children over the next 5-7 years, in Pinal County. That is 10-15 additional children each year as we grow. We feel blessed to be able to give back! Thank You so much for being a Pioneer in this area!
Our first bike fundraiser will be in Maricopa on 11/24/2012 Keep us in prayer..