There are still a group of people in Taiwan who have health insurance, but they dare not use health insurance to see a doctor. According to the statistics of the Ministry of the Interior, there are about 3,000 homeless people in Taiwan, nearly half of whom have actually had jobs, but high-risk physical work and unstable housing have accumulated many wounds and chronic diseases on their bodies.
Zhang Xiangxin, chairman of PatientsForce Caihong Health Integration Group, said that according to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) announced by the United Nations, the first is poverty eradication. Anyone can be trapped in poverty for a variety of reasons, and homeless people living on the streets due to poverty are often not included in the daily life of society, and because of the lack of a fixed address and physical residence, even the government’s social welfare mechanism is often inaccurate. This year (2024), Caihong Health supports the street family medicine service of Si’an Charity Service Association, sponsoring various necessary medical supplies such as 3M medical stethoscopes, cleansing and bath wipes, artificial skin materials, medical tapes and other necessary medical supplies, so that the association can continue to provide medical care for the homeless.
“Every homeless person on the street has a reason to ‘wander’.”
Li Yisheng of the Taiwan Si’an Charity Service Association said that there are hundreds of homeless people living in Taipei Main Station, including bosses, highly educated professors, teachers, public officials and people from various backgrounds. Over the years, in the process of poverty services, it has been found that homeless people who are living on the streets for various reasons have been suffering from chronic physical and mental difficulties, and they are accustomed to patience or lack a sense of being disease-free, and when their health deteriorates so badly that it is difficult to recover from medical intervention. Therefore, the association found a group of young and enthusiastic doctors and nurses, formed a street family doctor team every month, and waited until late at night after work to treat the homeless people’s pain and wounds, and protect the homeless’s basic medical rights and right to life.
Li Yisheng shared that during the epidemic, in order to conform to the social epidemic prevention atmosphere, the homeless people wore masks almost 24 hours a day, and a father-in-law’s mask ear hook has almost cut off the entire ear, leaving only a small part of it still connected, and is in great need of medical help.
Feeling that equal medical rights should be implemented in every corner of society, Zhang Xiangxin said that he expects more people to pay attention to the medical rights of a small number of homeless people, and also thanked the Si’an Charity Service Association for planning medical manpower, treatment venues, and follow-up with social workers and care workers, etc., through the attention and assistance of enterprises, to jointly implement the goals of the SDGs, and to be able to help the homeless to receive at least human dignity medical care.
Late-night street home doctor action: https://fb.watch/uDzpZOJY9R/
