Medical services expanding for those in need of help

<p>The former Brookwood homeless shelter in Santa Rosa, shuttered since 2009, soon will be resurrected as a medical clinic and respite center for homeless people.</p><p>The 16-bed facility at the northeast corner of Sonoma and Brookwood avenues will not be a general service homeless shelter. Its beds will be restricted to homeless adults recuperating from surgery or a serious illness.</p><p>The project is a joint operation of Santa Rosa Community Health Centers and Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa. It is expected to open in June.</p><p>“In many ways we will be oriented to the homeless but we are also really available to anyone who doesn't have a medical home,” said Dr. Michael Kozart, a psychiatrist who will head the clinic for Santa Rosa Community Health Centers.</p><p>Kozart currently heads the Community Health Centers A Street Clinic, located at the site of Catholic Charities' Family Support Center. Medical services currently provided at the A Clinic Services will be expanded at the Brookwood Health Center.</p><p>Meanwhile, Catholic Charities' existing homeless “respite” program, Project Nightingale, will be moved there from its site behind its Homeless Services Center on Morgan Street. The new Brookwood respite program may be called Homeless Medical Respite, said Betsy Timm, a spokeswoman for Catholic Charities.</p><p>Santa Rosa Community Health Centers staff will be on-site 20 hours per week while Catholic Charities staff will be present at other times to assist with meals and security, said Timm.</p><p>The new Brookwood Health Center will have six exam rooms, compared to two at the A Street Clinic. And Project Nightingale will be expanded from five beds at Morgan Street to 14-to-16 at the Brookwood location.</p><p>“We can handle many more people that are in need of help after serious illness or hospitalization,” said Timm, adding that referrals for the respite beds will be made only by hospital caseworkers.</p><p>The Brookwood Center Homeless Shelter, a 40-bed city shelter operated under contract by Catholic Charities, closed in 2009 for cost reasons. It had been in operation for four years. The 40-bed capacity was added to the Samuel L. Jones Hall center on Finley Avenue in west Santa Rosa. </p><p>After the closure, City Hall sought proposals for re-use of the building. After a proposal from the Disability Services and Legal Center fell through, the city approved the medical and respites center project.</p><p>Community Health Centers will use $240,000 in federal stimulus funds to remodel and equip the space, which will be leased for 10 years from the city housing authority for $600 a month. The A Street clinic will continue to operate, though its hours will be reduced to about 12 hours from 20. </p><p>The County Medical Services Program also provided some funds for coordination of homeless patients discharged from the hospital Catholic Charities. Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Sutter Medical Center provided a total of $95,000 for the first year of operation of the respite beds.</p><p>Medical services will be funded by billing Medi-Cal and the county for patient visits, but Timm said Catholic Charities is seeking funding partnerships to maintain the expanded Homeless Medical Respite Program beyond the first year.</p>