I met Candice when she was referred to the Medical Respite Program at the Poverello Center. A lifelong Montanan, she lost her housing while battling addiction.
She came to the Poverello Center to try to get her life back on track, but she hadn’t been staying in shelter long when she found a dime-sized lump in her breast. Worried, she went to the Partnership Health Center satellite clinic located inside our shelter, and they scheduled her a mammogram. When she got the cancer diagnosis, PHC referred her upstairs to a bed in the Poverello’s Medical Respite facility. By the time she moved into Medical Respite, the lump was the size of a baseball.
While she undergoes chemotherapy, Candice stays in a dorm-style room. She plays oldies through a speaker, hangs a colorful quilt on the wall, and keeps her snacks in a mini-fridge. “Everyone keeps bringing me food,” she says, “but I don’t really have an appetite.” Eager to keep building a better life for herself, she takes herself to treatment every week, and calls her daughter when she feels well enough.
As Medical Respite Care Coordinator, I work with each person who comes through our program — over 50 unhoused individuals every year — to ensure they are getting the treatment they need, and to support them as they recover from acute illness or injury. In many cases, I have the opportunity to help people move from Medical Respite into transitional or permanent housing, treatment, or another more stable option.
I’m extremely proud of our program, which recently earned the newly-created Medical Respite Program Certification from the National Institute for Medical Respite Care. Certification means we can continue to provide a high standard of support to our guests in need, and proves that our program, although nearly a decade old, is on the cutting edge of care.
Working with Candice, like working with many of our clients, reminds me how essential these services are. Without a safe place to recover, we would lose many of our already vulnerable neighbors, and sick or injured people would fall further behind in their journeys towards stability.
Medical Respite is a vital lifeline for the Missoula community, and it is entirely community-funded. Your support is crucial to ensure our neighbors experiencing homelessness, illness, and injury receive the care they deserve. Together, we can help people like Candice regain their health, rebuild their lives, and move towards stability. Please consider donating today — your support truly makes a difference.
Sincerely,
Arynn Payne
Medical Respite Care Coordinator
