October 22nd, 2025
By: WoodTV
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Catherine’s Health Center has a new mobile van working to better reach the homeless community in Kent County.
The van is equipped with a sink, a bed, and other medical equipment like you would see in a typical exam room.
“We started doing healthcare for the homeless around two and a half years ago and what that looked like was a nurse practitioner or a doctor with a backpack and they would go into shelters, go into encampments,” said Megan Erskine, the CEO of Catherine’s Health Center.
The non-profit received a grant in August of 2024 to purchase the van. In July of this year they started trialing a program.
“We have people come running toward the van. Our providers on the van, our clinical team are well liked, they build relationships,” Erskine said.
The van runs two days a week going around the Grand Rapids area to places where it is needed the most.
“We have a doctor on the van and a medical assistant. She can prescribe meds, she can diagnose, she can provide preventative wellness care. We have vaccines on the van. We can do some small point of care testing,” Erskine said.
The van works as an extension of the Catherine’s Health Clinic inside Mel Trotter ministries in downtown Grand Rapids.
“A lot of our guests, even in the shelter are in wheelchairs, are in walkers so they can access services here. But people in the community who maybe, live a half a mile from here, a quarter of a mile from here, especially in the wintertime, it’s hard for them to make it here,” said Chris Palusky, the CEO of Mel Trotter Ministries.
The van and clinic can also reduce stress on emergency rooms where the homeless often turn to for care.
“Let’s say somebody has the flu or somebody cuts themselves there’s some basic medical care is needed, they can do it here, they can do it in their own community. They don’t have to go to the emergency room. They don’t have to call an ambulance,” Palusky said.
The homeless community is also sometime hesitant to seek out care.
“Not everyone likes to interact with conventional or traditional healthcare and so with the van and the anchor clinic at Mel Trotter. They work together to coordinate care so no one falls through the cracks. We’re not duplicating services,” Erskine said.
