CAREtakers
USF SUPPORTS homeless women and children THROUGH CLINIC
Brenda Anderson, a student in USF's family nurse practitioner program, volunteers with a smile at Charis House, where she provides healthcare.
Maliela Rozier may be homeless, but the teenager has the security of primary healthcare without leaving her housing facility, thanks to University of Saint Francis family nurse practitioner (FNP) faculty members and students. A core of USF School of Health Sciences professors and students are providing a healthcare safety net for the most vulnerable members of society—homeless women and children like Rozier—through a new clinic at Charis House, a homeless shelter in Fort Wayne. The clinic opened at the ever-full, 79-bed facility in August, and three months later, the volunteer caregivers had already tended to over 100 residents.
USF School of Health Sciences volunteers opened a clinic in Fort Wayne’s Charis House, above, in August to meet the healthcare needs of the homeless women and children who reside there.
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saint francis magazine | winter 2012
USF became instrumental in making the clinic a reality when USF professor of nursing Meg Wilson brought the idea to USF community nursing instructor Theresa Roberts. A discussion between Roberts and high school classmate and Charis House Director Lynne Isenbarger took the idea to another level, and soon Roberts met with USF’s FNP faculty about providing volunteer staffing for the new clinic.
Photos by Tim Brumbeloe