Posted by Sandy Hutchens
In 1986 a group of homeless people in Toronto met to discuss health care issues they were facing. They felt discriminated against within the health care system, and given their circumstances they were often unable to follow prescribed treaments. The group identified nurses as the people they would feel most comfortable going to for health care.
Upon learning of the initial discussions, a group of volunteer nurses opened the first Street Health nursing station in September, 1986 at the Toronto Friendship Centre drop-in, in the All Saints Church at Sherbourne and Dundas. Other nursing clinics followed, located where homeless people congregated, in order to provide hands-on health care and assistance in accessing and navigating the existing health care system.