Homeless with Cancer, Man Finds Hope in Texas Health Medical Respite Program

DALLAS, Texas - After two years of living on the streets, a thin and frail Darrell Greathouse leaned on one of his few remaining possessions - his faith - and prayed for help.

"I fell down on my knees because I was so weak, and I probably was on my last leg. I couldn't hold down water (or) food anymore. I said something is wrong. I couldn't even urinate without going through excruciating pain."

God, he says, answered his prayers by giving him the energy to get back up, walk to the front of the church behind which he'd been sleeping and ask staff to call an ambulance. At a VA hospital in Dallas, the Army veteran, who had battled drug addiction for 30 years, received five units of blood and a diagnosis - he had prostate cancer.

Today, Greathouse is back to a healthy weight, recently completed chemotherapy treatment, is drug-free and living in his own apartment. He credits Health to Home, a collaborative medical respite program through Texas Health Resources and Austin Street Center, for helping him get back on his feet. Without it, he said, "I would have given up.

"They gave me hope," Greathouse said. "Knowing that I'm going to get meals three times a day, I've got access to showers, I can stay clean. They even give you clothes and shoes and everything you basically need to survive."

Health to Home provides unhoused or imminently homeless men and women short-term residential care to recover in a safe environment following their discharge from a hospital. Recently, Austin Street awarded Texas Health a Community Leadership Award for the system's commitment to supporting the community's most vulnerable homeless.

"We provide a safe space for them to be able to receive everything from wound care management to cancer care treatments to medication management for their high blood pressure to their other needs for medicine and services, such as being able to get a primary care physician," said Jennifer Hay, M.S.N., R.N., NEA-BC, director of the respite program. "Things that we take for granted every day, these neighbors don't have that. To be able to create a space that's safe for them to get what they need, to be able to give them hope and restore their faith in people again, has been an amazing journey for us."

Lodged in a separate unit within the Austin Street Center shelter, participants receive health care, support and education to navigate their health issues from on-site Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas staff. Austin Street Center staff offer additional social services, including helping participants replace missing identification records, apply for benefits and look for housing.

Launched in September 2020, Health to Home has served more than 330 homeless men and women through June 2024. Of those, 65 participants have found appropriate housing, including in an apartment of their own like Greathouse, with family or in a long-term care facility.

Barclay Berdan, FACHE, CEO of Texas Health, said the program exemplifies Texas Health's Mission of improving the health of the people in the communities it serves by reaching out beyond its facility walls to address the challenges and disparities that impact health and well-being.

He said Health to Home aims to "have an impact on people that are sometimes invisible in the community, because every individual is important."

For the five months that Greathouse remained in the medical respite unit, Texas Health nurses helped him clean his wounds and change his dressings for the two catheters that remain in his back to help with damage to his kidneys. Staff also provided him numerous resources, including a one-year pass to ride DART buses and trains for free.

"I told them, 'I thank God for all of you,'" Greathouse said. "When I had to get stuff off my chest, they took time to listen. I already had faith and belief. I just needed a little bit of hope that everything would be all right, and they would just ensure me, 'Everything's going to be OK. We're here for you.'"

Health to Home is funded entirely through donations to the Texas Health Resources Foundation. Donations can be made here.