Primary Care Training and Enhancement -- Residency Training in Street Medicine - The University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford (UICOMR) Family Medicine Residency Program (FMR) is submitting a proposal titled, “Increasing Capacity Around Residency Education 4 the Unhoused (ICARE4U)”, a proposed primary care training program designed to enhance the training of Family Medicine (FM) residents in Street Medicine. The ICARE4U program is a collaboration between the University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford and the University of Illinois Chicago (UICOM) FMR programs. We will partner with several other organizations, including but not limited to community-based organizations serving the homeless, faith-based organizations, two unique medical-legal collaborations to serve the needs of the homeless, and mobile units to facilitate the provision of care in non-traditional settings. The overall goal of ICARE4U is to train our FM residents to provide inter-professional, patient-centered, empathetic care to homeless individuals in Chicago, Rockford, and rural northern Illinois by enhancing our FM residency training through didactics and clinical experiences in Street Medicine, including medical and mental healthcare of the homeless, SDoH, and substance use disorders. Residents will also be trained to work with inter-professional teams, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, community health workers, volunteers, and legal professionals to help address these individuals' needs. In the next five years, our approach allows for the training of 85 Family Medicine residents in comprehensive Street Medicine with an elective experience in Street Medicine for 60 additional primary care residents and numerous medical students from both institutions. Our proposed program demonstrates the shared approach of our two FMR programs to enhance our Family Medicine residents' didactic and clinical education. The didactics will be delivered sequentially, and topics include treatment of chronic conditions, cultural competency and health literacy, SDoH’s impact on the ability to provide treatment for health conditions, substance use disorders, mental/behavioral health conditions, inter-professional care, and the legal needs of the homeless. The proposed required clinical rotations in the PGY2 and PGY3 years will prepare our FM residents to provide more empathetic, inter-professional, patient-centered care for homeless individuals and families. These learning opportunities will provide a healthcare experience working in low-resource, non-traditional settings to address chronic disease, mental health, and substance use disorders for the homeless. The project director (PD) will work with the UICOM site director to oversee the overall implementation of the program at our urban, inner-city, and rural sites. The PD will also oversee the overall planning and management of the program, including fiscal management and competency evaluations. She will work with the evaluation team to assess performance of residents in the program and monitor progress the performance of residents in the program and monitor progress toward achieving the overall goal. ICARE4U will grant our FM residents opportunities to practice urban, rural, and inner-city Street Medicine while expanding our reach into our communities to assist more homeless patients. We request a funding preference based on the high placement of graduates in practice settings that serve MUCs (See Attachment 6). We are requesting a funding priority based on rural training for our residents in AY 2023 and AY 2024 (See Attachment 7)
