San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium (SFCCC)
From San Francisco Homeless Resource
San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium
Street Outreach Services (SOS) / Veterinary Street Outreach Services (VET SOS)
1550 Bryant Street, Suite #450
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: (415) 355-2222
Fax: (415) 865-9960
Web: http://www.sfccc.org
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[edit] About the SFCCC
The community-based, non-profit partner clinics of the San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium (SFCCC) are cornerstones in San Francisco's health care delivery system. From 1956 to 1992, these clinics were created in under-served neighborhoods to ensure that people who are at greatest risk for poor health outcomes – due to such things as lack of insurance, low-income or homelessness – did not continue to fall between the cracks in our health care system.
In 1982, these clinics – recognizing their shared values and concerns – came together to form SFCCC, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. With SFCCC an organization was created that would allow these clinics to pool their collective resources – both financial and experiential – and would also serve as a vehicle to address their needs and interests, and those of their patients, to local, state and national policy makers.
SFCCC works to lead and support the partnership in three core areas, each with distinct programs: Program Design & Management, Partnership Services, and Partnership Promotion. While SFCCC partner clinics focus on patient care, promoting individual health to preserve the well being of the communities they serve; SFCCC promotes the health of our clinics – keeping them poised to adapt to a changing health care environment – so that their long-standing tradition of community care is persevered.
The SFCCC partnership (SFCCC with its partner clinics) provides primary care services to nearly 65,000 San Franciscans each year – almost 10% of the City’s total population – and brings into the City and County of San Francisco more than $33M in health care revenue annually. Together we work toward a future vision in which all people have access to quality, community-based health care provided in a culturally, linguistically and population-sensitive manner.
[edit] About SFCCC Partner Clinics
The San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium's ten partner clinics serve over 74,000 low-income, uninsured, and medically underserved people per year. The clinics are located strategically throughout San Francisco to meet the health needs of the people and communities they serve. Comprehensive primary, preventive, and ambulatory care services are provided by a team of doctors, mid-level clinicians, nurses, dentists and health practitioners under the supervision of a medical director. Many clinics offer "one stop shopping" including mental health services, dental and vision care, health promotion and disease prevention education. Services are available in up to 20 languages - free to those who cannot pay and on a sliding scale for those who can pay.
[edit] About Street Outreach Services (SOS)
Street Outreach Services (SOS) is the mobile outreach component of SFCCC’s Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) program. Since 1988, SOS has provided high quality, non-judgmental health services directly to homeless people in places where they live and congregate.
Traveling in a medical van to sites throughout San Francisco, the dedicated SOS team of doctors, nurses, outreach workers, and volunteers creates “clinics without walls,” at soup kitchens, on city streets, in parks, and if the need arises — and it has — under freeway overpasses. SOS also provides its services at San Francisco's Project Homeless Connect in the Civic Center. In other words, anywhere homeless San Franciscans can be found, the SOS team finds itself.
At these sites, the team provides critically needed preventive and urgent health care services; distributes hygiene and health supplies; helps people to complete applications for benefits; and refers clients to citywide clinics for more extensive care — assisting with transportation to be sure they get there. They also connect clients to an array of social services, and guide them to gain access to these programs. Additionally, SOS provides vitamins, condoms, clothes, as well as information regarding various resources, including drug detoxification and rehabilitation programs, housing, and medical and social services.
SOS provides services to low-income people who are experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness. Clients include veterans, immigrants, sex workers, and vehicularly housed individuals, as well as people suffering from mental illness and drug addiction disorders. SOS provides a variety of medical and social services free of charge. Many acute health problems are treated on site, while those patients requiring more extensive care are given appointments in community clinics or are referred to S.F. General Hospital.
Making “house calls” to people who have no home to call their own indicates just how far SFCCC, with its nine partner clinics, will go to fulfill its mission to ensure that all San Franciscans have access to health care.
Started in 1982, SFCCC provides programs and services that preserve and promote the longstanding tradition of community health care that began with our first partner. Each of them made vision a reality by starting neighborhood clinics — “medical homes” to serve those who had fallen through the cracks of the health care system. A safe, welcoming place where people are valued, respected and, most importantly, understood. SOS draws from that same tradition.
SOS utilizes every avenue to reach its homeless clients, many of whom have companion animals. In 2001, SOS began an innovative project called Veterinary Street Outreach Services (VET SOS). Based on an idea from a former SOS client, the SOS program partnered with a volunteer veterinarian to begin offering care to homeless animals, as a way to reach out to homeless San Franciscans. This pilot project has been very successful in getting our clients linked to health and other social services -- the first step to turning their lives around. Research confirms our findings of the importance of the human-animal bond, as a road to healing.
It is respect and understanding that is key to the success of SOS. By going directly to homeless people — meeting them on their own turf and terms, in their neighborhoods — the SOS team builds a relationship of trust, and breaks down the barriers that keep them from the care they so greatly need. Street Outreach Services (SOS) is funded by a combination of federal and private sources, and is operated by SFCCC in collaboration with its partner clinics.
The SOS van follows a weekly schedule:
Day Route Times
Monday Castro/Haight 1PM to 5PM
Tuesday China Basin 1PM to 5PM
Tuesday Evening UFO (U Find Out) at 234 Eddy Street. 5:30PM to 8PM
Wednesday Bayview/Hunters Point 1PM to 5PM
Wednesday Evening Most Holy Redeemer at 100 Diamond St 5:30PM to 8PM
Thursday Morning Mission District 9:00AM to 11:00AM
Thursday Afternoon Martin de Porres
225 Potrero Ave 12:30PM to 2:30PM
Alternate Thursday Evenings Ladies' Night at Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, 165 Capp St 5:30PM to 8PM
1st/2nd Thursday of Alternate Months SOS Suitcase Clinic: Project Homeless Connect, 99 Grove Street 10AM to 3PM
2nd Friday of Each Month Veterinary SOS (VET SOS) 10AM to 4PM on the second Friday of each month. To schedule an appointment, please call 415-355-2248
1st/2nd Thursday of Alternate Months VET SOS Suitcase Clinic: Project Homeless Connect, 99 Grove Street 10AM to 3PM
These routes are subject to change. Please call (888) 784-5365 and press #3 for SOS (this number is toll-free), if you are in need of services on the van.
[edit] About Veterinary Street Outreach Services (VET SOS)
VET SOS is a project of Street Outreach Services. SOS utilizes every avenue to reach its homeless clients, many of whom have companion animals, to link them successfully into primary care services. Based on an idea from a former SOS client, the SOS program partnered with a volunteer veterinarian in 2001, to begin offering care to homeless animals, as a way to reach out to homeless San Franciscans. This pilot project has been very successful in getting our clients linked to health and other social services -- the first step to turning their lives around. Research confirms our findings of the importance of the human-animal bond, as a road to healing.
This innovative outreach project addresses the unique problems of homeless individuals with companion animals. Services are provided by volunteer veterinarians and veterinary technicians, through the use of a specially-equipped mobile outreach van. VET SOS provides physical exams, basic medical procedures, vaccinations, referrals, and transportation for free spay/neuter surgery, and dispenses information about service animals in rental housing and responsible pet ownership.
VET SOS visits the Bayview-Hunter's Point, China Basin, and Castro/Mission neighborhoods on the second Friday of each month. In addition, the project provides its services at San Francisco's six annual Project Homeless Connect events in the Civic Center, and participates in the annual Thanksgiving dinner for homeless people with companion animals.
VET SOS carries vaccinations, medications, medical charts, animal food, leashes, collars, halters, and other necessary supplies that are dispensed, on-site, by a volunteer staff that includes one veterinarian, one vet tech, and an animal assistant. When possible, an animal behaviorist joins this team. In addition to providing physical exams, basic medical procedures and vaccinations, the team also provides health education and responsible pet ownership education, as well as referrals and transportation for free spay/neuter surgery.
VET SOS promotes prevention, as well as intervention. VET SOS requires that pet owners spay and neuter their companion animals through the donated services of a partner agency in order to continue receiving services.
Clients can make specific appointments to receive the outreach services by calling the VET SOS hotline at 415-355-2248. In addition, they can call the hotline between visits, when problems arise with their companion animals. VET SOS is not currently designed to handle a continuous flow of animal emergencies. However, urgent calls to the hotline are triaged twice per week by the VET SOS team, who then distribute information and resources to homeless clients, as needed. Clients are referred to partner agencies on many occasions, for further support.
