By Wanda Rae
Residential Program Manager
Haven House has a new partnership with the Waterloo Region Nurse Practitioner Led Clinic situated in Cambridge. A Nurse Practitioner provides onsite medical care for residents who do not have a primary care provider.
We have many situations where women arrive at our Cambridge shelter and either don’t have a primary care provider or they cannot access their family physician because they have relocated here for safety reasons and are not able to return to the geographic area that they fled from without it compromising their safety.
The Nurse Practitioner who has been coming to our current Haven House location offers educational sessions and helps to connect women to their Clinic. She is not able to do medical exams because we do not have appropriate space or equipment in our current facility.
When we move to the new Haven House, there will be private space where the Nurse Practitioner will be able to properly assess and treat women.
Our long standing partnership with The Kitchener Downtown Community Health Centre continues. A Nurse Practitioner attends Anselma House one afternoon each week. This service is well utilized by our residents, both women and children.