Clinic lends a hand to homeless youth

By Maileen Hamto, CareOregon Communications Writer

Ask Debbie Heybach, NP, about the most misunderstood thing about homeless youth, and her answer is simple: “They’re no different than our own kids.”

Debbie, who has worked with homeless youth for more than seven years, manages the walk-in health clinic at New Avenues for Youth, located in SW 8th and SW Oak in downtown Portland. New Avenues provides a full range of outreach services to assist homeless youth exit street life, while also focusing on preventing at-risk youth from becoming homeless.

The health clinic is funded by a grant awarded to Multnomah County Health Department (MCHD). As a county provider, Debbie divides her time between MCHD’s Westside Clinic and the New Avenues clinic, which is open two afternoons a week. With the help of medical assistant Kathleen Johnston, Debbie provides health services to homeless youth through age 25.

In a Q&A with CareNews, she shares more about her work at New Avenues for Youth.

CN: What health services are offered to youth through the clinic?

DH: The clinic has been around for sometime, although we’re new to this space. New Avenues moved to this building last December, and MCHD opened the clinic in March.

New Avenues is a multi-service center for homeless youth to get housing, jobs and other services. Through the clinic, we see a variety of medical problems, give immunizations, and even offer prenatal care for kids who are pregnant. We try to do a lot of teaching around a lot of health issues related to youth on the streets: sexually transmitted diseases; pregnancy; alcohol and drug use. On average, we see about eight to 10 kids over a four- hour period.

This is true for a lot of our county patients, as well as the kids we serve. A lot of them go to the emergency room, because they have no insurance. They get a prescription, but they have no money to pay for the medicine. So it’s really important that after we’ve diagnosed what’s wrong and figured out what kind of medicine they need – that we provide a way for them to get that medicine. The youth get prescriptions here, and they get filled at Westside Clinic.

CN: What is the most misunderstood thing about homeless youth?

DH:  The idea that they’re bad or somewhat different from our own kids. Like all kids, homeless youth need help from adults. Many of them are good kids, but they’ve been given a really bad situation.

They have no resources. If they want to go to school, they have to get themselves up every morning. There’s nobody there to wake them, nobody there to get them breakfast, no Mom to drive them to school. They have to be really disciplined and have a lot of motivation.

CN: What is the most rewarding aspect of what you do?

DH: Teenagers are a lot of fun. The youth we work with are amazing people. They come from very difficult lives, and manage to get up everyday and try to make the best of it.

It’s pretty heart-breaking to hear their stories. Many of their parents are drug-involved. They have no adults in their lives, except for the staff at New Avenues.

The staff here are amazing. They’re always positive with the kids in really trying to help them become successful at what they do.

CN: What are some of the challenges you’ve experienced in working with homeless youth?

DH: Some of the kids we see may have had previous bad experiences with medical people. We need to establish trust. A lot of times, they come to know us by just talking and hanging out. Many of the kids have a particular problem, but no one’s really talked to them about it or tried to help out. We’re here to reach and help them with whatever they need.