Asheville’s unhoused population is accustomed to navigating complicated pathways to meet basic needs from city and county resources, nonprofits, and religious institutions. Now tens of thousands of other Western North Carolina residents are experiencing similar barriers on a temporary basis as the unhoused population grew overnight due to people who lost their homes in Hurricane Helene. The city has added four shelters for the general population, and the need continues to be high.
The number of unhoused people in Asheville was already a concern before Helene. Rental prices here are among the highest in the state, and as a heavily marketed popular tourism destination, a significant amount of housing stock is used for short-term rentals. The barriers to accessing treatment for mental health and substance abuse are also acute in a city that has become a hub for the rural region that surrounds it. Buncombe County’s January 2024 point-in-time count identified 739 people living in transitional housing, emergency housing, or living outside.
The bright green van that is Appalachian Mountain Health’s mobile medical unit usually visits the same location on a certain day of the week to provide primary and mental health care. Since Helene, however, the mobile team assesses daily what the needs are, and goes where they are greatest, said Summer Hettinger, a family nurse practitioner for Appalachian Mountain Health.
Caring for wounds that result from substance use has also been a necessity made more difficult with no running water in most of the city. In addition to giving out general hygiene kits from Direct Relief, the mobile team has handed out wound care kits for abscesses, such as xylazine wounds. Also known as “tranq,” the sedative xylazine can create open sores on the skin.
Prior to Helene, the mobile unit saw patients by appointment. Given the difficulties with cell phone and Internet service, it’s now “first come, first serve,” Hettinger said. (Locations for the mobile medical unit are shared on Instagram and Facebook.)
Anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications have been in demand post-Helene. Hettinger says the mobile medical unit is both refilling prescriptions and initiating new e-prescriptions at four pharmacies that have the capacity to do so.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.