The educational opportunities in a departmental program of health care for the homeless.

Persons who live on the streets and are homeless present many challenges to providers of health care. This paper describes a 14-year ongoing project in the Department of Family, Community, and Emergency Medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. This small clinic started in an inner-city rescue mission and subsequently has progressed to a much larger health care project for the homeless. Experience in this setting demonstrates that such a site can provide service to the homeless, while at the same time providing educational experiences for medical students and residents and an opportunity for academic research. This project can be duplicated in any academic medical center to provide both service and education.