The week before Thanksgiving marks National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. In Sioux Falls, the Midwest Street Medicine team is working to fill some of the gaps in medical and addiction services by meeting the city's most vulnerable people where they are.
During the group's morning rounds, a wagon piled high with supplies trails behind the small team of volunteers. Melissa Dittberner, or Dr. Mo to most, checks in with a few men sitting near the train tracks. She gets on her knees to talk to them eye-to-eye, introducing the team and asking if the men have any medical needs. The rest of the team digs through the wagon for bottled water, fresh socks, some oranges and other snacks. They can also offer flu shots, STI testing, even eye glasses. In the last month, the team has had more than 300 medical interactions.
Dr. Mo co-founded Midwest Street Medicine in 2023. With a couple years under their belt, this week they invited other community members and local media to come see what they do.
"It looks different from all the other services in Sioux Falls," Dr. Mo said while walking towards the Siouxland Downtown Library. "Sometimes we get asked, 'Oh, so-and-so does this,' and it's like, 'Yep,' but we triage it in a different space where people are, so we can support them on a different level."
Her expertise is in addiction care, which allows her to connect people with resources they might not otherwise be aware of or have access to. One of the volunteer physicians for Midwest Street Medicine is Dr. Don Ellis. He says even though he can't fix every problem a person living on the street might be facing, he wants to help where he can.
"I'm a pediatric E.R. doctor by training, but there are some things I can do with adults that have medical needs," he said. "I can meet that need right now. That's why we're here."
In fact, not long later Dr. Ellis discovers a man in medical distress. He rushes back to his car, then takes the man to the E.R. in his own vehicle.
That kind of help isn't unusual for Midwest Street Medicine. Dr. Mo hopes people in better circumstances can find their own ways to help, and that they can look beyond any biases or discomfort.
"Our brains our build to keep us safe," she explained. "When something doesn't look or sound like us, our brain goes, 'This might be scary.' But we can override that to say this isn't scary, this is another human. They look and sound like us. They're aunties, brothers, sisters, dads, whatever. And we need to make sure they're safe as well."
The most recent data shows roughly 600 people are homeless in the state's largest city.
