Dr. Joshua Bamberger MD MPH to speak September 28 6pm Glaser Center
Joshua Bamberger MD MPH, Homeless expert will address
"Hard Answers: Freedom and Homelessness"
Dr. Bamberger was recently appointed as Associate Director of UCSF's $30 million Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.
As a primary care physician and Master of Public Health, Dr. Bamberger has been working with San Francisco's homeless population at the Downtown Clinic and SF Health Department for 30 years.
His pioneering research investigating the medical crisis of homelessness proves the significant health and cost-saving benefits that housing the vulnerable senior homeless population provides.
As example, he refers to a 67-year-old man with PTSD and underlying mental illness that led to drug addiction and other health maladies. "The man cycled in and out of jail, prison, hospitals and shelters for many years but after he was placed in a senior- only, permanent supportive housing unit, his drug use and need for hospital services diminished. The difference in health care costs between the year before he was housed and the year after was enough to pay for his housing for the next fifteen years."
"Offering housing is often the most cost-effective health care treatment available, yet despite the proven benefit, the U.S. health care system rarely invests in it." he says, adding that "the grounding of doing the face to face work is critical to keep the policy and research work real."
Dr. Bamberger will focus on the root causes of homelessness and the best ways to delegate scarce resources. His "hot button" priorities are shelter versus life on the streets, substance abuse, mental illness and the increasing large numbers of aging homeless.
He'll discuss a variety of innovative, evidence-based models that are succeeding around the country and how they can be applied to Sonoma County, which has one of the largest suburban unsheltered homeless populations in the nation.
There will be a question and answer period following the talk.
Dr. Josh Bamberger will close out this month's Festival of Belonging at the Glaser Center as keynote speaker. The event will be held at the Santa Rosa Glaser Center, 547 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa from 6-7:30pm.
The evening is free to the public and organized by Justicewise, the Sonoma Intersections Coalition (SIC), and the Sonoma County Area Agency on Aging, with generous support from the Glaser Center, St. Joseph Health, the Taos Institute, and Sonoma Food Runners.
Justicewise founder, Gillian Haley, emphasizes that "the purpose of the 2019
Festival of Belonging, which also features the FACES and Inherent Worth photo exhibits
showing at Glaser through October 29th, is to promote connection and kindness as the
foundation for working together to solve our community's greatest challenges."
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Media contact: Gillian Haley
tel: 707 235 1450
[email protected]
Kathleen Finigan
tel: 707 480 6201
[email protected]
