This past week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with public health nurse Jody Rauch to talk about her work as a direct-service public health nurse and a policy/systems change advocate for people experiencing (or, as she says, “surviving”) homelessness. She talks about the path that led her to her current work as Senior Program Manager for the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness. I love how she stated that she didn’t listen to nursing instructors when she was in her BSN program who told her she couldn’t go directly into public health nursing upon graduation. She credits the wise mentoring she received about this from Dr. Maggie Baker (a trusted friend and former colleague of mine). Nursing students whose heart is in community/public health nursing should absolutely consider going directly into jobs in that field upon graduation. Please don’t listen to the nay-sayers you may encounter!
Jody stated, “I really think homelessness is just where the failures of systems, and either good or bad public policy impacts, really converge. And I wanted to be able to work and participate in trying to shift systems.” She talked about what is going on in Burien, where she lives. “Right now the Burien City Council in particular has chosen to criminalize homelessness.” She speaks up at City Council meetings and advocates against the cruel effects of sweeps and other bans on people surviving homelessness. It’s important to note here that places like Burien that criminalize homelessness cause more pain and suffering, prolong homelessness, and lead directly to an uptick in hate crimes against people “appearing” to be homeless. Unfortunately, this includes verbal and even physical attacks on official outreach workers (and public health nurses) in the field who are connecting people with needed health and social services, including behavioral health and housing options.
Finally, Jody spoke of success stories, positive programs, and public health/social service interventions, especially ones we learned locally due to the COVID-19 pandemic response impacting people living homeless. It is important to emphasize, celebrate, and support evidence-based programs, including multidisciplinary outreach teams like REACH (Evergreen Treatment Services) and the U Heights Vehicle Outreach Team.