The Outstanding Community Partner Award recognizes all that Compass’s partners do to enrich and amplify our work. Everyone has a role to play in tackling the complex issues of homelessness in our community, and this year’s winner, Anita Souza, PhD, plays her role masterfully!
Anita (center) is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington’s School of Nursing. She has been a valued partner of Compass Housing Alliance for nearly a decade. Her work addresses the care and support of older adults across the cognitive continuum, including those in the early stages of memory loss.
Using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methods, Anita’s research aims to better understand the needs and challenges of providing care to homeless older adults with cognitive impairment.
Together, we are partners on a research project funded with a $500,000 grant from Wellpoint (formerly Amerigroup) in which a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and Graduate students are embedded in Compass’s Nyer Urness House program. They first build relationships and then provide necessary clinical services to residents where they live. This kind of embedded, relationship-first, wrap-around service model truly impacts our residents’ level of participation in healthcare, quality of life, and wellness.
We are seeing our residents, many of whom have high medical needs and a tough time trusting the medical system, participating in their own care with these nurses. They are stabilizing further, both mentally and physically. One resident has finally found the right medication to manage his mental health challenges and is now in school.
This happened because of Anita’s dedication to Compass and our relationship-first partnership. Anita accepted the award from the stage at this year’s Homeward Gala.
She spoke a few words to the gathered attendees.
“I am absolutely honored and humbled by this award- thank you! It is hard to believe that so many years have passed since we met on a busy intersection at the corner of health and housing. We have been traveling together ever since. We have had bumps and many learning opportunities along the way but I never needed to worry that we would find our way because of course it is in the
name — Compass!
Our destination was not a place but a space, a space to call home where people have not only the external structure that offers safety, stability and a place to heal but they also have support to heal Housing offers a critical foundation for us to address those critical health needs and support residents who have often been made to feel invisible within our systems.
As the proverb goes. ‘If you want to travel, fast go alone, if you want to travel far go together.’ This could not be truer than in this work and we have had amazing traveling partners.
I have deep gratitude for the residents at Compass who have shared their spaces and their time with me over the years and to the staff who have guided me, educated me, and shared their insights. Robert Bowery, Teena Ellison, and April Akin have been steadfast partners who have spent countless hours writing proposals, joining me in publications and presentations, and troubleshooting challenges along the way. They narrow the divide that can exist between research and practice.
Our current work together is exciting, innovative, and centered on people not systems. Through the generous support of Wellpoint we have been able to realize a dream which was to change the delivery of healthcare is delivered to individuals who have experienced homelessness. Thank you to Interim Dean Dr. Allison Webel, Dr. Anne Hirsch, and Jenny Vincent at the UW School of Nursing who have joined me in championing this work. We have created a model of healthcare delivery that is relationship based and works to rebuild trust and health by meeting people where they are. The impact of this work has been accentuated by the ability to create and extend training opportunities for our nurse practitioner students.”