From Teresa Palmer:
I adamantly advise closure and complete reconfiguration of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Reset Center plan.
This plan appears to be based on a narrow, stereotyped view of what is wrong (and should be fixed) with a person on the street with altered mental status.
The lack of medically skilled personnel and supplies (including real beds, MDs, more than one RN, a pharmacist, medications and diagnostic and treatment supplies) makes poor outcomes and the death of detained clients very predictable.
People found on the street with altered mental status are almost always sick people who are medically underserved, and who have multiple medical problems, including hypertension, diabetes, severe vascular disease, and frequently kidney, lung and heart disease. I adamantly advise closure and complete reconfiguration of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Reset Center plan.
This plan appears to be based on a narrow, stereotyped view of what is wrong (and should be fixed) with a person on the street with altered mental status.
While it may be hard for those of us who are more privileged to see sick folks on the street, sequestering them (illegally) with caregivers who have inadequate support is not a solution.
I predict this will be a major source of harm to vulnerable San Franciscans, and lead to preventable deaths and much litigation.
Teresa Palmer, MD, is a geriatrics and family medicine doctor.
