Steven Potter
UW medical student Carmel Assa washes the feet of Roy Jacobs while he chats with nurse Anica Bausch at a foot clinic.
Homeless for the past 10 months, Roy Jacobs is constantly on the go.
“I’m on my feet at least 70% of the day,” he says. “I need them.”
Fortunately, Jacobs hasn’t had any foot problems. But like most homeless people, his feet are yet another thing to stress over. So Jacobs took advantage of a new foot clinic offered by Madison Area Care for the Homeless OneHealth (or MACH1), a volunteer group made up of health care professionals and others.
“I wanted to have my feet checked out by a professional, just to be on the safe side,” says Jacobs. “I’ve never seen a foot doctor before.”
The group held its first clinic earlier this month in the basement of First United Methodist Church downtown.
Proper foot care is often neglected by the homeless due to a lack of health care and the prioritization of other needs, says volunteer organizer Dr. Ann Catlett.
“People living on the streets don’t have a way to bathe or stay clean, or they might not have a change of socks like we do,” says Catlett, a palliative care specialist with UW Health. “Everyone needs help with their feet, and this is a very basic service we can provide.”
Some of the foot problems homeless people have include “ill-fitting shoes [or] moist feet, which can lead to fungal infections. They could also have diabetes or circulation problems,” she adds. “They have to be mobile all day to go between service agencies, and they’re carrying things constantly.”
In the span of three hours, Catlett and a couple dozen volunteers tend to the feet of 15 people, providing a full foot-health checkup, including an initial assessment of any ailments, a thorough washing, wound care and an exam by nurses and doctors for pain and concerns. Free socks and shoe padding are also distributed.
MACH1 came together last fall when veterinarian William Gilles found that homeless pet owners revealed their own need for medical care while getting help for their animals at the free pet care clinic WisCARES. From there, Gilles connected with Catlett and Garrett Lee, a board member of the advocacy partnership Homeless Services Consortium, and the group began to grow.
The group then surveyed the needs of the homeless population. In doing so, they found that transportation was a major barrier for the homeless who needed health care, “which is why we wanted to have the foot clinic downtown at a central location,” says Lee.
In addition to the free foot clinics, MACH1 will conduct more surveys to tailor other programs to the county’s homeless.
The homeless weren’t the only ones to benefit from the free foot clinic. “[It] was a lesson in humility and humanity,” says MACH1 volunteer Dr. Bethany Morehouse Howlett. “When we come together as a community to provide compassionate care to one another, we foster trust and resiliency.”
Another volunteer, Carmel Assa, an incoming UW medical student who washed feet at the clinic, agrees. “We can all provide some degree of help,” she says, adding she’ll volunteer at the next foot clinic, which is scheduled for the morning of May 14, also at First United Methodist Church.
One man, as he was leaving the clinic, let the volunteers know how much he appreciated the help: “I feel like I’m walking on a cloud right now.”
Editor's note: This article was updated to use the preferred acronym for Madison Area Care for the Homeless OneHealth.