CHCANYS and Lutheran Family Health Centers arehonored to announce the creation of the Dr. Philip W. Brickner Memorial Award. Dr. Brickner, who died on March 24, 2014, was a pioneer in community and urban public health and nationally recognized as the father of homeless health care. The award will be presented during CHCANYS’ Statewide Conference & Clinical Forum 2014, during the awards dinner scheduled for Monday, October 20.
In 1969, Dr. Brickner organized a team of physicians and health workers to provide direct, hands-on care in New York City homeless shelters. This was the start of his lifelong mission to address health disparities and to serve marginalized populations by bringing team-based medical care to those most in need. His ground-breaking homeless health outreach program led to the development of the Department of Community Medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital, now operated by the Lutheran Family Health Centers in Brooklyn. Currently, there are 249 health care for the homeless programs across the country – each of them built on his commitment to high quality, patient-centered, accessible, compassionate and dignified models of care.
