The old adage “If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain” is the philosophy behind a new program launched last February to provide medical care to Malibu’s homeless population—estimated to be about 180 individuals in the official 2017 homeless count.
Doctor Coley King, affiliated with the Venice Family Clinic and UCLA, is Malibu’s doctor to the homeless. Every other Thursday, he meets up with Malibu’s two outreach workers from The People Concern—Alex Gittinger and Alex Michel—and goes where the homeless are, including the Civic Center area, the beach and encampments.
“The two Alexes,” as they’re known, know which individuals need medical attention and where to look for them.
King also keeps his own list of patients. Sporting shoulder-length hair, a handlebar moustache and a western-style shirt, he doesn’t look like most mainstream doctors, but then again, he isn’t like most mainstream doctors. He brings a black doctors’ backpack, filled with all the medical supplies and diagnostics he might need on any given day out in the field, including devices that work with no running water or electricity.
He said the program is about “removing all barriers to medical care by taking the medicine to the patient.”
The Malibu Times was permitted to go on a ride-along with the doctor and social worker, and one stop included seeing a Vietnam veteran with an open wound on his leg, suffering various symptoms and conditions and living in an encampment. The individual had been in Malibu for about six years and said the wound started off as a scratch.
“We’ve been nursing that wound for months now,” Gittinger said. “The doctor changes the dressings every week and supplies him with bandages and saline … I’m trying to get him housed, and we’re taking him into the Venice Family Health system instead of the VA system.”
After the exam, King was concerned the vet had pneumonia. He tried to convince the man to be taken to the VA hospital immediately, but the patient insisted on waiting until the next morning. The doctor gave him an inhaler and some antibiotics, and got a promise that Gittinger could come back and take him to the VA at 8:30 a.m. the next day.
One of the Malibu clients is emaciated.
“He was very fragile and malnourished, and vitamin B deficient,” Gittinger described. “We went out to the canyon and established a relationship with him—and it’s all about that relationship. We went every Thursday with Dr. King to give him a B-12 shot, taught him how to shop for food in a better way, supplied him with Ensure and he gained his strength back.”
Homeless patients are different from other patients because they frequently have multiple chronic conditions, move around from place to place and often refuse medical help.
“I’m a family doctor and I practice family medicine,” King said. “My goal is to get them to come into the Access Clinic in Santa Monica for vaccinations and lab tests, and get them signed up for insurance.” He emphasized that with the Medi-Cal expansion in 2014, it’s possible for almost any homeless person to get medical insurance.
He said some of the most common medical problems he sees are spider bites, scabs and wounds not healing, meth use, and infections. In any case, he said, “I really want to engage and get to know the patient. Sometimes it takes a day and sometimes it takes 12 months to get them to agree to go to the clinic.”
When someone goes to the clinic for the first time, the doctor sets up an appointment with the head nurse “so we can establish a medical baseline.”
“We also use 911 and the ambulance as an important part of our field medical outreach; and we’re an appropriate link to make an appropriate transfer to a hospital,” King explained. “In the case of a possible stroke, for example, we make sure to send a phone number to contact us and the case management team.”
Besides social and medical services, the team is also able to provide support with substance abuse issues and mental health. On alternate Thursdays, the outreach team works with a psychiatrist, Dr. Ryan, who comes out to Malibu.
“Me and the psychiatrist both have training in substance abuse,” King said.
The Venice Family Clinic, started in 1970, is affiliated with UCLA, has 12 locations in western LA, and provides free and low-cost health care to low-income, uninsured and homeless individuals.
The Malibu Outreach team is funded by the Malibu Task Force on Homelessness.
