The Bob Tavani House for Medical Respite (BTH) has issued a letter that lays out an upcoming “series of professionally facilitated community conversations around homelessness and medical respite needs in [Duluth].”

The community organization based out of First Covenant Church in Lincoln Park is currently seeking 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. BTH’s board secretary, Annalisa Peterson, described the organization’s mission. 

“Bob Tavani House gives people a safe place to recover when they’re dealing with some kind of medical issue that required them to be hospitalized and they are currently dealing with some housing insecurity or homelessness,” Peterson said. “The alternative in the past is that people have been discharged to places that aren’t conducive to that kind of healing.”

A key founder of BTH and its fiscal sponsor, CHUM, continues to provide logistical support as BTH moves through the 501(c)(3) process. Tony Olson, chair of BTH’s board, stated that there will be five different community conversations, each tailored to address different groups of people. He explained that there are two things that BTH hopes to accomplish with these conversations. 

The first is understanding what the community believes are gaps in Duluth’s medical respite service, and conversely, what they are doing well. The second goal they’ve set is to set a development plan that would allow for the program to be sustained for years to come. Olson described the value that BTH brings to the community.

“First and foremost, you have the value for the guests,” Olson said. “They are receiving the health care that they need, they’re receiving the social care that they need, and they’re receiving the emotional, physical and spiritual help that we all need as human beings. It’s not just the physical healing — they’re being connected to programs, they’re being connected to resources and they’re able to have that loneliness that can come with homelessness addressed.”

Olson went on to explain that his program not only benefits vulnerable members of the Duluth community, but its health care systems as well.

“It’s common sense,” Olson said. “You don’t need a PHD to know that it’s much more expensive to spend a day in a hospital than it is to spend a day in a home, safe hygienic place, so the health systems are winning by having this system around.”

More information can be found in the previously attached letter. To be a part of the conversation and learn ways to contribute, send a note with your name and email address to BTH_Charette@ahpnet.com.