Jewish Healing

Adat Shalom volunteers provide free
medical care to homeless guests.

JULIE WIENER STAFF WRITER

T

synagogues and churches to take
turns housing and feeding its
homeless clients for week-long in-
tervals.
This week was Adat Shalom
Synagogue's first turn, and as the
shul prepared for the homeless
guests, project chair Nancy Wel-
ber Barr began looking for doctors

PH OTOS BY BIL L HANSEN

hey came for the basics: food
and shelter. But this week,
they also received another
basic, one that poverty and
transience often prevent: good
health care.
South Oakland Shelter (SOS),
a nonprofit social service agency
based in Royal Oak, recruits local

in the congrega-
tion willing to be
"on call" should
problems arise.
Dr. Jeffrey
Devries, who
directs the chil-
dren's health
Left: Dr. Theodore
Wizenberg listens service of the
Oakwood
to the heart of
Healthcare
Joseph Rice.
System, sug-
gested taking it one step further.
He recruited physicians and
nurses from the congregation to

Top: Linda
Warner and Celia
Lubetsky, co-
chairs of the food
preparation
committee, dish
up soup.

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provide physical exams and
routine tests.
Then Dr. Leonard Su-
dakin, an obstetrician-gyne-
cologist, came up with the
idea of offering blood tests,
pelvic exams and cultures,
and convinced the Detroit
Medical Center to process
the tests for free.
As a result, 13 homeless
guests received general med-
ical examinations Monday
night, and a number of the
homeless women opted to re-
ceive full gynecological care
Tuesday night. When one se-
verely ill guest was diag-
nosed as needing acute
medical care, Dr. Devries
drove him to Veterans Hos-
pital.
Tests will be processed
over the next few weeks, and the
physicians will provide follow-up
care as needed, referring patients
to specialists and clinics where
necessary. Because the guests are
transient and lack access to regu-
lar health care, they will be given
all the requisite paperwork from
their exams in order to facilitate
improved care in the future.
"So far, we're feeling like this
has been a very successful pro-
gram," Ms. Welber Barr said.
"We're receiving positive feedback
from the guests, and the volun-

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teers are finding this to be a ful-
filling experience."
Dr. Devries agreed. "It's been
really gratifying to see the re-
sponse of the guests that we were
able to help out," he said. "A lot of
them said they really appreciat-
ed it and had never been treated
like this."
Plans are already under way to
expand the services for next year.
According to Dr. Devries, Adat
Shalom members of the Alpha
Omega dental fraternity have vol-
unteered to provide dental exams
and cleanings next year.
While doctors at other church-
es and synagogues occasionally
provide medical care in response
to emergencies, Adat Shalom is
the first to offer extensive care,
said SOS executive director Lil-
lian Melville. "Sometimes, if
there's a doctor in the congrega-
tion, someone will come in and do
examinations, but it's not an all-
the-time thing," she said.
Because it lacks shelter facili-
ties, SOS has sought church and
synagogue assistance since 1985,
in what has proved to be a popu-
lar program. The houses of wor-
ship host up to 30 homeless people
for a week. They also provide
transportation for guests with
jobs.
Eventually, SOS hopes to raise
funds for its own building 0

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