Page 5 - MidWeek Kauai - June 8, 2022

CORE Team Plays Key Role In Supporting Community Health
FROM PAGE 4
JUNE 8, 2022 KAUA‘I MIDWEEK 5
(Above) EMT Julianne Fajotina reviews charts in the CORE office in Chinatown. (Left) CORE EMTs and staff work with an injured person.
medication. What we’re noticing is that unfortunately a lot of the calls are coming from people in the home- less community, just because they don’t have access to a doctor, clinic, transportation, or money for a cab or Uber, so they disproportionately use 911 a lot.
asking the police to deal with med- ical problems using police training, and that doesn’t always work well.
health insurance and other means of paperwork-heavy support.
“Some of the people that CORE is dealing with call 911 every day,” he adds. “We have a handful of in- dividuals who have called 911 over 100 times a year. So, spending that extra time with somebody like that will save a hundred 911 calls for the rest of the year because they get some type of definitive service.”
“The biggest thing we want the public to know is that we’re just starting and nothing visual is going to happen over- night,” he adds. “But with the en- gagements CORE is making on the street, the people are begin- ning to trust our team members, and they’ re taking our suggestions of getting them to a shelter, rehab or psychiatric care. We’ve gotten people into permanent housing.”
“We only have a limited number of 911 ambulances and they’ re re- sponding to these minor calls that homeless individuals are calling for, which takes them away from being able to respond to the beach for a drowning or for a major car accident.”
“So, we really needed to find a better way to take care of the chron- ically homeless people, particularly with mental and substance abuse issues, that wasn’t pure police and pure EMS, so that’s where CORE has a role to play in addressing this.”
“There was a gentleman who was homeless for five years on River Street who was eligible for nursing home care through the Veterans Administration; he was a veteran,” says Ireland. “The team helped him, through the VA, apply so that he would get those services that he was entitled to. He’s off the streets now. Sometimes it’s just going that extra mile, working collaboratively Wand lining up the stars.”
In these refurbished ambulanc- es, CORE’s team has the ability to drive its staff and supplies all around the island, as well. It re- cently visited the Windward side, Wai‘anae and Diamond Head/ Kaimukī, with upcoming plans to check out Pearl City/‘Aiea, Central O‘ahu and the North Shore, too.
The same goes for the police de- partment.
Ireland emphasizes that CORE, which dons red shirts and some- times blue jeans as a way to deem themselves as more approachable, is in no way replacing EMS or po- lice when it comes to extremities. Rather, they’re filling a gap for the nonviolent and nonfatal matters, becoming yet another tool in a col- laborative effort to combat home- lessness on O‘ahu.
hile it appears that CORE drives am- bulances similar to
This summer, CORE’s team will expand to 50 personnel (it’s currently hiring) and one day may open an opportunity for volun- teers to lend a hand. Soon, it will also launch a website and social media platform so the commu- nity can not only stay up to date about what it’s accomplishing but submit concerns they have about homeless people in their neighborhood. For now, residents can call 808-768-2673, which is CORE’s official hotline.
“There are a lot of reasons why people are homeless ... but what I found in working in EMS and now CORE is that the majority do have issues with mental illness and sub- stance abuse, as well as chronic medical conditions and dementia,” explains Ireland. “When a homeless person causes a disruption, lashes out or is laying on the sidewalk, historically, the police were called. The police would come to the scene, but they don’t necessarily have the same degree of medical training as the people in the ambulance. We’re
Besides the medical component, CORE serves as a liaison of sorts, by connecting the individual with a plethora of resources including hygiene centers, health clinics, psy- chiatric services (soon, they’ll have one on staff) and, of course, shelters and permanent housing. CORE also assists with obtaining identification, a task that seems minuscule but can be life-changing and open dozens of doors for things like bus passes,
EMS’s (it’s stocked with everything from life-saving equipment to adult diapers), a notable disparity is that it can take its passengers to places other than an emergency room.
“We know no part of O‘ahu is spared as far as people being home- less in the communities,” says Ire- land. “We want to really help the whole island, but since we’re new, we’re taking it one step at a time.
“EMS go to the 911 call and transports people to the ER. Once that hand-off is done, we wish the patient well, clean up the ambu- lance and go to the next call,” ex- plains Ireland. “With CORE, we don’t want them to necessarily do that. We want to set that person up for success. That’s why we tell the CORE team, if you need to spend an hour or two with somebody — do it.
“The populations of the people who are on the beach in Wai‘anae are different than the people you’ll find in the downtown or airport areas, so we need to tai- lor our response a little bit to the areas we go in so we can maxi- mize our ability to help those we encounter.
With military experience and medical school under his belt, Ire- land confesses that CORE is with- out a doubt the hardest challenge he’s ever taken on.
“It’s a process but we’re counting our victories, one person at a time.”