Anyone who has volunteered for a politician knows that it can be hard to get people to engage, even when you show up at their front door. But canvassing – or door-to-door contacts – is still an essential part of retail politics.
Election day, thank goodness, has come and gone for this year. But, if you live in Dorchester or Mattapan, you might still get a knock on your door in the next week or so.
Health Care for All (HCFA), a non-profit organization, has deployed teams of canvassers into the neighborhoods this month to help in the aftermath of the abrupt, state-facilitated closure of Carney Hospital earlier this year. The group has used donated funds to hire paid doorknockers, who are bringing fliers that helps former Carney patients understand what has happened – and, in some instances, to get their opinions on what they hope will happen next at the Carney’s largely abandoned Dot Ave. campus.
Amy Rosenthal, HCFA’s executive director, also serves as a member of the 32-member Dorchester Working Group appointed by Gov. Healey and Mayor Wu to advise them on next steps for the Carney site.
According to Rosenthal, over the last month her group’s canvassers have made contact with 8,800 people in Carney’s catchment area. That’s roughly one-quarter of the 34,000-plus households they have tried to reach, a pretty impressive rate of return.
The paid canvassers bring along information meant to help former Carney patients or people who might have used the now-shuttered hospital in an emergency. They also ask residents about what they plan to do now that Carney is not an option.
“We wanted to make sure people knew how to get a copy of their medical records,” Rosenthal told The Reporter. “We wanted to make sure people had a plan in place if an emergency happened, but they needed to get to a hospital for care – to get them proactively thinking through that.”
Of the people who’ve spoken to the HCFA teams, there has been a mixed response about their post-Carney behavior to seek care. Some 30 percent say they are going to a local community health center for care, with another 23 percent saying they will go to an urgent care center, which might also be housed at a health center, like Codman Square, DotHouse Health, Neponset, or Mattapan. Roughly 19 percent say they’ll go to another emergency room at a hospital outside of Dorchester.
Rosenthal says that the results are still fluid, since the canvassing will continue until the day before Thanksgiving. But the results should give decision-makers solid ground to make informed decisions about what should happen next at the Carney site. Rosenthal says HCFA will work with several Dorchester-based organizations, like VietAID, to hold some additional input sessions in the coming weeks. And the Boston Public Health Commission is expected to host its own “public listening session” before the end of the year.
Members of the working group who’ve briefed The Reporter about their meetings to date (the gatherings are closed to the press and public) say that there’s an upbeat, but urgent, tone to their effort so far. They also affirm that there’s a widely held view among the group that a replacement health-care facility is the only viable consideration for the Carney site.
One thing is clear: Whatever happens there next must include a 24-hour urgent care option to meet the needs of Boston’s largest community and to take the pressure off our network of health centers, who have been swamped with demand since the Carney’s doors were sealed and its contents auctioned off. Time is of the essence. -Bill Forry