Mobile Care Bus

In November 2023, the mobile clinic bus launched. The county's launch of the bus was intended to provide direct access to care for people in need.

In November 2023, it looked a little different than it does today. When the large encampment was in Rainbow Park, we had to beg them to make a stop there.

They did, and it made a massive difference to those living on the streets. When the city illegally disbanded the encampment, they added the motels, where many from the encampment are holed up, to their list of stops. Adding the motels continued to allow unhoused people access.

Within Sarnia, they attend The Inn Of The Good Shepard, The Overflow Men's Shelter, Willie's Motel, and Bluewater Motel.

You can access the mobile care bus without a health card. The bus offers mental health resources, a nurse on-site who can provide wound care, referrals to services and doctors, antibiotics, and STD testing. Until this past fall, they also handed out harm-reduction kits. We are not sure why they have stopped, but we disagree with the decision.

While it was at the encampment, the mobile care bus helped many people. They still do today, but with the loss of the encampment, many people are spread throughout the city, have no idea what day of the week it is or what time it is, and can't really follow the buses' schedule. It's one of those; they happen to be there when it is.

The teams that work on the mobile care bus work tirelessly to help those in need. It's the policymakers who need to look at why harm reduction is so substantial, especially seeing as the county-run health unit has stated that drug use is the main reason for the increase in syphilis in our area. Who looked at those numbers and went Yes, let's take away the harm reduction kits that include new supplies and condoms, that will fix it!