User:Foyaboj/sandbox

Article title is "Importance of charging mobile phones and health management".

'''Communication is important in health care delivery management. Mobile phone use has increased in the last decade. This article gives some insight on how to use cell phones to communicate with health care services for optimum health. A charged and working cellphone enables the owner to be prepared for communication alerts. For homeless people, this could be for receiving and giving information regarding housing, job, medication, and other government services .'''

Cellular phone use for healthcare purposes has been demonstrated among vulnerable groups. Some of these populations with chronic diseases such as people with Tuberculosis and HIV, admitted mobile phone text messaging for healthcare-related communication made it possible to follow up with medications, attend clinic and acquire additional health knowledge on their conditions .

Routine attendance at a primary care clinic for checkups and follow-ups has been shown to be facilitated through effective communication with mobile phones. Due to other competing events of daily living not including homelessness, the burden of keeping the mobile phone charged is real. In some public shelters or missions in the United States where homeless people seek temporary residence, mobile phones have to be handed over to authorities for safe keeping. This makes it difficult to charge mobile phones overnight for next day use. These shelters may not have enough space to accommodate everyone's phone for charging, thus missing out on alerts including health related communications.

Given the existence of the Affordable Care Act and the incentive for "Meaningful Use" patient portals have been created to help patients use technology to access their medical records at their convenience. The patient portal is not only convenient, it is safe, secure, and enables patients to communicate with the provider on things like home care, discharge instructions, schedule clinic attendance, and review labs/imaging. This valuable tool is increasingly harder for homeless patients to access for obvious reasons. A functional and charged mobile phone could alleviate this barrier to better engage homeless persons in their health.

Here are some places where a homeless person can have their mobile phone charged:


 * 1) County Libraries have cell phone charging stations
 * 2) Shopping malls and complexes
 * 3) Restaurants and eating places (caution: permission may be needed or with purchase)
 * 4) Public charging stations (limited in several places around the United States

A functional mobile phone that is charged is a step towards a better health. A company that provides mobile phone charging stations across the US puts it this way: "A powerless phone is unfashionable". It could also be said that "A powerless phone is unhealthy".

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History
In 1951, Ben and Stella Weingart, who had become rich from real estate in Los Angeles, started the Weingart Foundation. In 1983, the foundation created the Weingart Center with the donation of a building. In 1997, Weingart Center opened its Access Center to several social services including HIV and STD testing, veteran services and referrals. In October 2009, Weingart Center opened the Center for Community Health providing health care, dental, optometry and mental health services to low-income and homeless men and women. In July 2010, The Weingart Center Garden Project opened as the first green space in Skid Row.

In 2004, the Weingart Center, along with the Ahmanson Foundation and the Annenberg Foundation founded the Skid Row Homeless Healthcare Initiative (SRHHI). SRHHI had 26 member organizations and hospitals, and ceased operation in 2008.

Title of Article "Weingart Center for the Homeless"

At the end of the above article, it referred to another article "skid row homeless health care initiative" but the link no longer exists. Here is some information on how other foundations interested in helping the homeless community have come together to improve the health of skid row homeless residents.

Providing healthcare to homeless people may not be easy due to lack of health insurance, often no primary care provider, or the nature of their residence or lack thereof because care comes in bits from different sources. When services are disjointed there is no collaboration and integration of care. The treatments the homeless patients receive are not coordinated and the patient suffers. To provide adequate and comprehensive care to the homeless without confusion, some organizations have come together to integrate health services for the homeless.

It is possible that ‘skid row homeless health care initiative’ as noted in the above article was intended to make such a move towards organizing health care services for the homeless community. For example, the John Wesley Community Health (JWCH) Institute in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Department of Health services (DHS) run the center for community health at the Weingart.

The Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County has recently partnered with The Children’s Clinic and the Venice Family Clinic to build sustainable clinics that would provide healthcare to the homeless in the county. For more information visit the Los Angeles County Homeless initiative.