Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Multimedia
    • Collections
    • Past Issues
    • Articles by Subject
    • Articles by Type
    • Supplements
    • The Issue in Brief (Plain Language Summaries)
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Media
    • Job Seekers
  • About
    • Annals of Family Medicine
    • Editorial Staff & Boards
    • Sponsoring Organizations
    • Copyrights & Permissions
    • Announcements
  • Engage
    • Engage
    • e-Letters (Comments)
    • Subscribe
    • RSS
    • Email Alerts
    • Journal Club
  • Contact
    • Feedback
    • Contact Us
  • Careers

User menu

  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
Annals of Family Medicine
  • My alerts
Annals of Family Medicine

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Multimedia
    • Collections
    • Past Issues
    • Articles by Subject
    • Articles by Type
    • Supplements
    • The Issue in Brief (Plain Language Summaries)
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Media
    • Job Seekers
  • About
    • Annals of Family Medicine
    • Editorial Staff & Boards
    • Sponsoring Organizations
    • Copyrights & Permissions
    • Announcements
  • Engage
    • Engage
    • e-Letters (Comments)
    • Subscribe
    • RSS
    • Email Alerts
    • Journal Club
  • Contact
    • Feedback
    • Contact Us
  • Careers
  • Follow annalsfm on Twitter
  • Visit annalsfm on Facebook
Research ArticleInnovations in Primary Care

Begin the Turn: A Mobile Recovery Program for a Targeted Urban Population

David T. O’Gurek, Nicolle Strand, Jonetta Gibbs, Bryson Hoover-Hankerson and Victor Oluwafisayo Jegede
The Annals of Family Medicine September 2020, 18 (5) 465; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2565
David T. O’Gurek
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: david.ogurek@temple.edu
Nicolle Strand
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jonetta Gibbs
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Bryson Hoover-Hankerson
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Victor Oluwafisayo Jegede
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

THE INNOVATION

A mobile recovery unit staffed by a multidisciplinary team addresses addiction streetside in North Philadelphia, including treatment for opioid use disorder and a bridge to primary care services. The program was named Begin the Turn, playing on the vehicle making turns about the neighborhood as well as individuals beginning to turn from addiction. The Begin the Turn logo highlights the “BE U” letters within the name to designate the harm reduction approach to care.

WHO & WHERE

The program serves a population streetside at 2 identified corners in the Kensington area of North Philadelphia, identified through mapping concentrated areas of fatal and nonfatal overdoses in this service area of the Temple University Health System. The population struggles with numerous physical and behavioral health challenges but notably struggles with high rates of homelessness.

HOW

The program’s structure is based on the CeaseFire model, an initiative launched in Chicago in 1999 that uses prevention, intervention, and community-mobilization strategies (including credible outreach workers) to reduce gun violence. The goal of the program is to reduce the level of drug use, overdoses, and overdose deaths within targeted neighborhoods with high overdose death rates in Philadelphia, serving as a standard for community engagement around the overdose crisis. Services are delivered through a mobile van that contains a clinical area, counseling area, waiting room, and bathroom.

A community board that oversaw program development ensured that the initiative remained community oriented and built systems that were both needed and desired by potential participants. The team consists of our program director/lead physician, program coordinator, 3 outreach workers with relevant lived experience, our case manager, and 2 additional physicians. Our program coordinator is responsible for the overall, day-to-day operations including managing, motivating, and mentoring the team in a team-oriented environment. She also serves as behavioral health director who completes intakes on potential participants of the program which includes a social determinant of health and adverse childhood experience and trauma assessment. Our case manager, funded through a grant with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services, works to address housing as well as other social, psychological, and medical needs. Outreach workers, as credible messengers within the community, assist with identifying people in need and aligning with behavioral health and case management to link patients to resources. Staff support, program administration, and the mobile unit was funded through state appropriations directed to Temple University for addiction outreach efforts. The program is closely aligned with Temple’s TRUST Clinic and therefore benefits from options for pharmacy, transportation, housing, and food assistance.

LEARNING

Success of such a program relies on the building of a program that can bridge trust with the community to reduce the social exclusion and marginalization that individuals struggling with both homelessness and substance use disorder (SUD) face.1 While early frustrations led to significant delays in obtaining a mobile unit and having the necessary service arrangements, these delays enabled the outreach workers to obtain a significant amount of early data on the characteristics of the population including demographics and social needs. Among all those engaged in this early process, 83% were interested in buprenorphine treatment and information regarding their specific social needs enabled the program to more directly align with services as well as design a program uniquely fitted to meet the needs of individuals we would be serving.

Footnotes

  • Conflicts of interest: authors report none

  • Additional information, including affiliations, references, key words, funding info, previous presentations, and submitted dates are online at https://www.annfammed.org/content/18/5/465/suppl/DC1.

  • © 2020 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

The Annals of Family Medicine: 18 (5)
The Annals of Family Medicine
Vol. 18, Issue 5
September/October 2020
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
  • In Brief
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Annals of Family Medicine.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Begin the Turn: A Mobile Recovery Program for a Targeted Urban Population
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Annals of Family Medicine
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Annals of Family Medicine web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
11 + 3 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
Citation Tools
Begin the Turn: A Mobile Recovery Program for a Targeted Urban Population
David T. O’Gurek, Nicolle Strand, Jonetta Gibbs, Bryson Hoover-Hankerson, Victor Oluwafisayo Jegede
The Annals of Family Medicine Sep 2020, 18 (5) 465; DOI: 10.1370/afm.2565

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Get Permissions
Share
Begin the Turn: A Mobile Recovery Program for a Targeted Urban Population
David T. O’Gurek, Nicolle Strand, Jonetta Gibbs, Bryson Hoover-Hankerson, Victor Oluwafisayo Jegede
The Annals of Family Medicine Sep 2020, 18 (5) 465; DOI: 10.1370/afm.2565
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • THE INNOVATION
    • WHO & WHERE
    • HOW
    • LEARNING
    • Footnotes
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Housing For Health in the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Tent Community
  • Embedding Student Volunteer Affordable Care Act Navigators in a Primary Care Clinic
  • Long COVID Shared Medical Appointments: Lifestyle and Mind-Body Medicine With Peer Support
Show more Innovations in Primary Care

Similar Articles

Subjects

  • Domains of illness & health:
    • Prevention
  • Person groups:
    • Vulnerable populations
  • Other research types:
    • Health services
  • Core values of primary care:
    • Access
    • Coordination / integration of care

Content

  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Past Issues in Brief
  • Multimedia
  • Articles by Type
  • Articles by Subject
  • Multimedia
  • Supplements
  • Online First

Info for

  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • Media
  • Job Seekers

Engage

  • E-mail Alerts
  • e-Letters (Comments)
  • RSS
  • Journal Club
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Subscribe
  • Family Medicine Careers

About

  • About Us
  • Editorial Board & Staff
  • Sponsoring Organizations
  • Copyrights & Permissions
  • Contact Us
  • eLetter/Comments Policy

© 2022 Annals of Family Medicine