The Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program: a public health framework.

During the past 25 years, the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program has evolved into a service model embodying the core functions and essential services of public health. Each year the program provides integrated medical, behavioral, and oral health care, as well as preventive services, to more than 11 000 homeless people. Services are delivered in clinics located in 2 teaching hospitals, 80 shelters and soup kitchens, and an innovative 104-bed medical respite unit.

Old and sleeping rough: elderly homeless persons on the streets of Boston.

Older individuals living on the streets of our urban cities are a unique sub-group of the homeless population. No studies have been published about these elderly "rough sleepers" who face daunting obstacles to health care while facing a litany of health risks on the streets that are magnified by the physical and mental limitations of advancing years. To improve our understanding of this itinerant group, the Street Team of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program prospectively followed 30 individuals aged 60 or older living on Boston's streets for the four-year period from 2000 through 2003.