The Pathology Less Traveled

“Around 75,000 people are homeless in Los Angeles County on any given night; in 2022, 2,374 of them died while homeless, mostly because they overdosed, or their hearts failed, or they were hit by cars. Officials are desperate to move them inside.” But getting some of these folks inside is nearly impossible because of mental health issues. Is street psychiatry a potential solution? NYT (Gift Article): Under an L.A. Freeway, a Psychiatric Rescue Mission. “Street psychiatry offers a radical solution: that for the most acutely mentally ill, psychiatric medication given outdoors could be a critical step toward housing. Dr. Rab, a medical director of Los Angeles County’s Homeless Outreach & Mobile Engagement program, describes the system his team has built as an outdoor hospital, or sometimes as a ‘DoorDash for meds.'”