Truck stops, underpasses, and beyond: public health leader reaches out to the homeless

Pursuing a career in research might conjure up images of labs and test tubes. But for Vanessa Schick, PhD, it’s meant truck stops, underpasses, and other places where she can engage with those living with chronic homelessness.

Schick, an associate professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (Uthealth）公共卫生学院正在努力将她对公共卫生资源的了解，通常称为其工具箱，直接将其直接推向最需要这些的人。

While her career started out more traditionally research-oriented, “meeting people where they are” quickly evolved into the heart of her work. It started as a plan to promote sexually transmitted infection (STI) screenings for people engaged in sex work at truck stops across Texas with research partner J. Michael Wilkerson, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor at UTHealthSchool of Public Health。与他们正在采访的人互动后，它发生了变化。Schick很快意识到，如果没有满足基本需求，那么还有什么关系？

“I remember interviewing a woman that first day and asking her if she was interested in getting tested for an STI, and she told me that would be great, but what she really needed was a sandwich,” Schick said. “We had to stop and really learn how to be a support to those in these spaces without an agenda in ways that they defined for themselves.”

她决定把她的努力和编程啊n the needs of the communities where she was conducting research. That spun into a multipopulation focus and includes individuals with various experiences that often intersect – homelessness, justice system involvement, and sex work.

Schick告诉人们，与传统的学术模式相比，她喜欢向后工作。学术界通常通过审查文献或数据开始研究过程，然后与外部组织联系beplay苹果手机能用吗以在人群中实施计划。Schick首先在人群中进行需求评估，然后与组织建立计划和伙伴关系以实施它。

“重要的是要记住，支持系统几乎总是由善意的个人设计，但是它们通常是基于单一的视角或目标，通常是由财务驱动的。结果，所提供的东西和所需的东西之间经常存在太多的对准。” Schick说。

Schick通过在她工作的社区中建立信任并根据经验丰富的个人的意见来创建计划来弥合这一差距。在接近为人们创建解决方案的所有机会时，她的心态是“没有好人或坏人”，只有人们试图通过的人。

Schick’s research background spans topics such as性健康,性识别,和safe sex practices, so pivoting her focus to individuals experiencing homelessness was something she considered very carefully. She didn’t want to appear as if she intrinsically knew the struggles that community was facing or what kind of public health programs they needed.

Schick说：“在查看这些人群和可能的解决方案时，我总是竭尽全力注意我的特权可能影响我的观点的方式。”

Last fall, Schick was awarded $1.2 million from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to help prevent and treat liver cancer in those who are currently or were formerly homeless.

肝癌最常见的是病毒性肝炎引起的，无家可归的人有更大的收缩风险。该赠款提供了资金，以帮助通过与新希望住房的新希望住房的合作伙伴关系（得克萨斯州永久支持住房的新希望提供商）以及无家可归者的医疗保健提供资金。

通过提供住房并将其作为高危个人的主要需求，将筛查和治疗服务直接带到他们的位置。

Schick了解使这些筛选事件更受欢迎的价值。走进她的办公室，很难错过拐角处的游戏，热狗机和调味品。

“I like to create a fun festival environment. Bingo is always a big hit and so are the hot dogs,” she said.

“对于通过学者或社区提供的编程总是很容易的。但是我们都想做得更好。面临的挑战是，我们都受到特定于任务的成果的驱动，这些成果有时会限制可以以有问题的方式提供的工作。在公共卫生学校中，我们可以是中立的 - 聆听社区的声音 - 并召集必要的合作伙伴。” Schick说。“我们可以共同努力，使人们的生活更安全，更好，并汇集服务以支持他们。”

Right now, her research is focused on areas addressing individuals who have been involved in the justice system, with the goal of investigating criminal justice debt, and those who engage in sex work.

Schick的目标范围不仅仅是减少累犯，从而创建了一种公共卫生解决方案，该解决方案解决了社区的复杂需求，并在最脆弱的时刻支持了他们。

“How do we get upstream from here? One of the unique things about public health is we do not wait for people to fall. We figure out what the problem is and we try to address that issue,” Schick said. “For me, it’s all about not waiting until people get stuck in a system they can’t get out of.”