Street Medicine Detroit

08/22/2025

Hello Facebook Friends! Street Medicine Detroit is back to Facebook, we have been up to A LOT in the past few years. Our ultimate goal at SMD is to bridge the gaps between unhoused and medical communities by building relationships and offering companionship and respect. Over the past few years we have expanded our scope of care by working with new physicians and we have made new community partnerships to provide our patients with food, outreach supplies, and psychiatric support in addition to medical care. We consult in Henry Ford and Detroit Medical Center to help provide continuity of care for our unhoused patients that have been discharged. Currently we are working on a program to support pregnant patients and provide them with love, support, and care that all pregnant people deserve.

Through community collaboration we are able to help hundreds of patients and have become a well known presence for our unhoused friends in Detroit. Street medicine allows us to meet patients where they are and provide patient centered support.

Check out our mid year report and see all that we have been doing in Detroit so far this year. Also check us out on https://streetmedicinedetroit.org/ for more information and stay tuned for more on what SMD is working on in Detroit!

10/06/2021

We love the enthusiasm of our volunteers and leaders! It's such an honor to help provide healthcare to our patients. Thank you to everyone who makes this possible!

08/09/2021

“These things have been killin’ my feet. Thankfully someone came by and gave me some new ones right off their own feet!”

06/02/2021

A busy day at our shelter-based run! We cared for patients’ feet, took blood pressures, and checked blood sugars. Thank you to everyone who came out and volunteered with us!

04/18/2021

Street Medicine Detroit is a non-profit, student run organization devoted to helping those on the street by providing healthcare, food, and essential items. We’ve made an Amazon wishlist of items needed to restock our supplies so we can continue to help members of our community. If you are able, we would greatly appreciate any contributions. Everything will go directly to our neighbors on the streets. Thank you so much for your support!


https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/12VOYCLOFFHG2?ref_=wl_share

04/12/2021

Working with and , we administered 90 COVID vaccines over the last week. So happy we’re able to provide these much needed vaccines to our neighbors! We couldn’t have done this without the who supplied the vaccines.

03/22/2021

A huge thank you to our Alumni Advisory Council for donating over 2,000 Ford surgical masks! We’re looking forward to handing them out on our upcoming street and shelter runs.

02/14/2021

Foot care is such an important part of what we do! It's something we don't think twice about- change socks when they get wet, take shoes off to let our feet breathe. But what happens when you're constantly on your feet and don't have a dry pair of socks or a warm place to take your shoes off? Not only is foot care important to out patients' wellbeing, but it also allows us to have time to talk face to face with the patients, listen to their stories, and form better connections. Pictured is a patient getting calluses filed down.

02/04/2021

So excited and thankful to officially resume our street runs! Starting in January, we began outreach runs with M4 students and ended the month with a successful street run. Looking forward to continuing helping our neighbors in the months to come!

12/01/2020

This Giving Tuesday, we are thinking even more about our neighbors on the streets. If you are able, we would be grateful if you consider making a donation to Street Medicine Detroit! All proceeds will go directly towards supplies and equipment for patient care. We thank you for your support! :)
http://streetmedicinedetroit.org/donate

11/11/2020

This amazing graphic depicting the cycle of violence in shelters was designed by our research coordinators, Trishya Srinivasan and Ana Lanier as part of their study, “Violence as a Deterrent for Shelter Usage Among Unsheltered Persons Experiencing Homelessness in Detroit.” Ana and Trishya presented their poster at the International Street Medicine Symposium this year. Keep reading to learn more!

BACKGROUND: Patients frequently report instances of violence and theft in emergency shelters. In a city like Detroit which reaches below freezing temps in the winter, shelter avoidance can negatively affect our patients' health.

AIM: Our project aims to qualitatively and quantitatively assess violence and fear of violence as deterrents to emergency shelter usage.

INITIAL RESULTS: Initial findings suggest that fear of violence and experiences with violence (e.g. theft of clothing and hygiene supplies, fear of physical violence) lead to a cyclic relationship between patients and shelters that is injurious to patient sleep quality and mental health and lead to feelings of helplessness. Patients' initial suggestions for enhanced safety within shelters range from employing mental health specialists to installing metal detectors.

IMPACT: Our findings will inform designing safer shelters and medical respite centers in Detroit in partnership with the Neighborhood Service Organization.

10/06/2020

Dean Carpenter was a nurse practitioner at the Neighborhood Service Organization’s Tumani Center in Detroit and the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. He was also an essential part of the founding team of Street Medicine Detroit, and served as our lead clinical preceptor from 2012-2019. Dean recognized the tremendous need of those experiencing homelessness and taught us that even simple interventions could have an impact on improving quality of life. With his quiet warmth, quick humor, and genuine interactions, he exemplified Street Medicine’s mission of compassionate, high quality care to a population that is often overlooked by society. Dean was not only the primary clinician to many of Detroit’s most vulnerable, but he was also a mentor to hundreds of medical and nursing students. While we cannot replace his unique connection with our friends on the streets, we hope to continue to carry forward his sense of care, compassion, and service to the Detroit community. This podcast was filmed in 2018, as part of our video-podcast series, Perspectives. This footage was recently recovered, and offers a glimpse into how Street Medicine Detroit started, who Dean Carpenter was, and his posture of great humility and generosity that inspired all of us to do better. We are honored to be able to share it with you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuelKeILuYs&feature=youtu.be

Dean Carpenter was a nurse practitioner at the Neighborhood Service Organization’s Tumani Center in Detroit and the University of Michigan Medical Center in ...