The Word on The Street

Friends, Colleagues, and Fellow Humanitarians,

On behalf of Doctors Without Walls – Santa Barbara Street Medicine (DWW-SBSM), we invite you to read this issue of “The Word on the Street” the official newsletter of our organization. DWW-SBSM is dedicated to providing free, volunteer medical care for the most vulnerable of Santa Barbara County, when and where they are in need, including in times of disaster, and to provide education and training for our volunteers and others, in order to promote the excellent practice of humanitarian medicine in our hometown and elsewhere.

We are currently operating mobile clinics in addition to our Women’s Free Homeless Clinic with the help of our 62 volunteer clinicians and 150+ volunteer students. Our clinics provide an interdisciplinary “wrap around” approach wherein we are able to meet patients where they are at, and work tirelessly to address their clinical, psychological, and social needs. After earning the hard earned trust of our patients, we use our “Companion Care” teams to help liaison the most vulnerable into our existing local healthcare system in cooperation with some of our amazing local partners at the Neighborhood Clinics, Santa Barbara Public Health Clinic, VA Clinic, American Indian Health Clinic, and Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness. In 2016, we saw 755 unduplicated patients for a total of 2120 encounters. If you are interested in volunteering with, please join us to help contribute to a healthier community. We hope you enjoy reading about some of our volunteers in this newsletter.

We are as committed to the education of our students as we are to providing excellent medical care to the most vulnerable in our local community. DWW-SBSM is excited to sponsor the Underserved Medicine Seminar at University of California in Santa Barbara this winter. As always, this seminar is open to the community, and we invite our local medical and activist community to attend and join the conversation.

This has been an exciting chapter for Santa Barbara Street Medicine. We are still glowing after our successful fundraiser “Glow in the Park” at Elings Park in September. This event has helped make local humanitarian action the talk of the town. And we thank our readers and community for your continued support in helping to make Santa Barbara a healthier place. If you would like to donate to our organization you can check out our website.

We apologize about the delay in publishing this newsletter. Most of our volunteers have been busy taking care of sick, marginalized, and vulnerable patients, which sometimes takes away from our ability to reach out to you, our readers and supporters. Please enjoy this issue of “The Word on the Street.” We invite you visit our website and to follow us on Facebook. Don’t forget to get your flu shot this holiday season. We have been working tirelessly to get our local homeless community vaccinated as well. Please stay healthy and safe as the holidays approach. What you do matters!!