St. Ben's Clinic

Social Worker Bill Mullooly is pictured with John, a patient at St. Ben's clinic for the Homeless. For 27 years St. Ben's Clinic has provided respectful, comprehensive primary and preventative health care to patients, serving as an essential safety net to those who are homeless. St. Ben's Clinic is funded by Columbia St. Mary's Foundation.

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Overview
St. Ben’s Clinic is a primary care clinic providing care to homeless people and those unable to access traditional medical care. As a Columbia St. Mary's department, St. Ben’s receives much support through the Columbia St. Mary's health system and works in partnership with Health Care for the Homeless of Milwaukee and the St. Benedict the Moor Ministries. It is located on the site of one of the city’s largest meal programs, Loaves and Fishes, sponsored by St. Benedict the Moor Ministries.

St. Ben’s has an active program of outreach to establish relationships with people living in shelters and using local meal programs and food pantries. In 2007, 2,606 outreach contacts were made. An ongoing outreach clinic cares for women and children in the Cathedral Center for Women and Children. In 2007, St. Ben’s Clinic provided 932 clinical encounters at the Cathedral Center site and 5,532 encounters at the main clinic at 9th and State. Clinic patients also received 4,142 social work services during the year. Services are provided through the help of volunteer physicians and receptionists as well as paid nursing and social work staff.

The staff and volunteers of St. Ben’s have taken on the challenge of becoming the “medical home” for those who are homeless. This requires taking a “Window of Opportunity” approach – that is, accomplishing as much as possible to improve health within one patient visit since follow-up visits may be difficult for the patient to keep.

The support of CSM Foundations helps to meet the operating expenses of the clinic through grants and personal donations.

Community Partners

• St. Ben's Parish
• St. Ben's Community Meal
• Health Care for the Homeless

Foundations

• Matthew Keenan Endowment Fund
• Charles D. Ortgiesen Foundation
• Weiss Family Fair
• Albert J. and Flora H. Ellinger Foundation
• Constance A. Tresch Gift Foundation
• Gustav & Gladys Kindt Foundation
• Herbet H. Kohl Charities, Inc.
• Patrick Amman Cudahy Fund

Clinic Mission Statement

Values

Collaboration: As a clinic of Columbia St. Mary’s, St. Ben’s also collaborates with St. Benedict the Moor Ministries and Health Care for the Homeless. The Clinic works in partnership with meal programs, shelters, food pantries and treatment programs.

Understanding: The Clinic chooses to work with homeless people, those at risk of homelessness, and people with long term substance abuse and mental illness. This work requires a special understanding of our patients as people with special challenges, strengths and needs in their spiritual, physical and emotional dimensions.

Hospitality: Strengthened by the support of dedicated volunteers, we provide hospitality and respect as a Christian community. Many of our patients feel unwelcome in the community, but we assure them of hospitality within St. Ben’s Clinic.

Quality Care: We recognize the importance of assuring consistency and continuity of quality healthcare and social services through an accessible primary care clinic and outreach service.

Empowerment: We work with our clients to help them set health goals and reach these goals through the processes of advocacy and education.

Patient Stories

When Are Newspapers Bandages?
When a homeless person becomes really desperate, newspapers serve as bandages. Ellen Krueger, RN learned this fact as she provided outreach service at St. James Meal Program in downtown Milwaukee. She was approached there by Harold, a man who had lived on the streets for some time. He was one of the many street people who have a difficult time trusting others, even when in pain. On this day, however, the pain was too much to bear and he asked Ellen for her help with his feet.

As Harold took off his shoes, Ellen saw one reason for his foot pain, no socks. His poor-fitting shoes were rubbing directly on his swollen feet. He had large open sores that he tried to relieve by packing newspapers into the shoes. Needless to say, the newspapers were making his feet dirtier and only making things worse. Ellen’s first action was to cover his wounds with gauze and then to talk to him seriously about coming to St. Ben’s Clinic to have the wounds really cared for.

Harold had developed enough trust in Ellen that he did come to the Clinic. There his feet were soaked, antibiotic ointment was supplied and new socks were given to him. A voucher for shoes was provided by the social worker and Harold was on his way to healing. It did take him several more appointments to have his feet healed completely; but that afforded the time for him to really develop trust in the Clinic and to begin to address his Chronic Lung Disease. Now that he is a part of a health care system, he will no longer need newspapers for bandages.

Transitions
Judy is a woman in her mid-forties going through too many transitions. She came to the Cathedral Center for shelter as she had left her home of many years due to conflict with her partner. She was having to transition out of financial stability into a life without insurance and with little income. She came to the Cathedral Center for transitional housing.
Although Judy had many things changing, the difficult things seemed to remain the same: her diabetes, her asthma, degenerative arthritis and the hip pain that had been with her for many years. She came to see Linda, the St. Ben’s Clinic nurse practitioner who runs the outreach clinic at the Cathedral Center. The problem that brought Judy for help was running out of her diabetes medication. As Linda did a full assessment, she also found out about the asthma, the arthritis and the daily hip pain. Linda and Judy talked about the importance of ongoing management of all of her health problems. Judy agreed to establish a “medical home” at St. Ben’s main clinic on 10th and State.

While receiving care at St. Ben’s Clinic, Judy met Bill, the clinic’s social worker, who helped her apply for GAMP (the County’s program to care for uninsured people) to pay for medications and primary care. Judy was determined to do the best she could to improve her health and eventually she had hip reconstruction surgery at Columbia St. Mary’s. Today she walks without hip pain and continues to work through her transitions with the help of social workers and others to get back to a life of financial stability and independence

Hope
By Sara Zirbel, ANP
At St. Ben’s Clinic, one of the most difficult and pervasive illnesses that we deal with is that of substance abuse. It seems that almost everyone that walks through the door has battled with addiction.

Joe is a middle-aged man with a long history of alcohol and drug abuse. He suffers from seizures and was brought into the clinic by his brother in hopes of establishing regular healthcare. Upon meeting Joe, it is apparent that the years of hard living have taken their toll. Joe freely admits to being an alcoholic and actively using, but his main concern is obtaining his seizure medication which he has not had for “months”. During the health history he is polite but restless, and after completing the form, he is ready to go. He is provided with a prescription for medication and set up to return in one week to complete his physical.

The next week, Joe is back. I am surprised that he remembers my name. He tells me that after he left the clinic, he drank a few beers and checked himself into "Detox", realizing that he needed to “take care of my health”. He left "Detox" this morning “because I had promised that I would be back for my physical.” He is different today, friendly and charming, and I feel that we are establishing a rapport. He tells me he has “been clean” for 5 days. After the physical and drawing labs, we set up follow-up in one week. Joe tells me he will be staying at the Guest House that night and he is hopeful that he can remain sober.

It is apparent at his follow-up a week later that this did not occur. Joe is unkempt, disheveled and obviously intoxicated. The visit is not pleasant. After having to wait, Joe becomes angry and verbally abusive. The staff tries to reason with him, but to no avail. “I don’t need this” he says as he leaves before being seen, and as he walks out he states he will never be back. We tell him our door is always open if he changes his mind, but I feel a sense of failure. Could I have done something different? A call is placed to Joe’s brother to let him know what has happened. He states he will try to talk with Joe, but I wonder if we will ever see him again.

Some weeks pass, and one day as I am in the reception area I hear someone call my name. It is Joe. A different Joe-clean, smiling and reading in the waiting room. I am happy to see him and anxious to hear what has happened. He tells me he went back to detoxify and while there, kept thinking of us and how rude he had been “when I know you are trying to help me.” He is currently 11 days sober and feeling like things have changed. He tells me he is attending daily AA meetings, staying at the Rescue Mission, and even went back to his church where they welcomed him with open arms. He is so excited and positive that this time things will be different, and after calling the Milwaukee County Mental Health walk-in clinic to see about mental healthcare for Joe, I too feel like things are falling into place. The person who answers the phone is gracious and helpful, and we discuss what they might be able to do to support Joe in his recovery. We provide bus tickets so he can be seen there tomorrow, and make an appointment for him to return to St. Ben’s in one week.

In telling this story I recognize that Joe is lucky to have a family member still actively involved in his life and willing to help. It is also clear how shelters, community organizations, churches and other healthcare facilities fill unique roles in helping a person with an addiction. I am also continually amazed by the ability of the human spirit to hope: hope that an addiction can be overcome, hope that a body will heal, hope that this time will be different. I don’t know if Joe will remain sober, but I am glad that St. Ben’s is here for him no matter what, and all I can do is hope.

Contact Information

St. Ben's Clinic
1027 N. 9th St.
Milwaukee, WI 53212

Carol Sejda, Clinic Manager
T: (414) 765-0606
F: (414) 765-0226

Clinic Hours
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Walk-ins
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday Noon to 2:00 p.m.

By Appointment Only
Tuesday and Friday by appointment only.

Referrals
The Clinic aims to serve homeless people and those at risk for homelessness, primarily those without insurance. People who have been in shelters, living with others and who have been homeless over the past year are also considered homeless. The Clinic also has a special focus on working with people with long-term mental illness and their caseworkers. Referrals can be directed to Carol Sejda, the clinic manager by phone as listed above.