MACON, Ga. — A new site near downtown Macon will help the city’s homeless population recover from medical treatment.
The new Sheridan Center is a part of Depaul USA’s mission to fight homelessness, Sister Theresa Sullivan says. Sullivan is the Macon director of DePaul USA.
The Sheridan Center will be a respite center for people in need, Sullivan says.
She also oversees Daybreak, a ministry that helps people have a place to be treated and to have food and community, she says.
“When you leave the hospital and you go home, you still are just at the beginning of recovery. So these people don't need to be in a hospital, but they still need so much,” Sullivan says.
Needing so much is one reason Sullivan says her team decided to open a respite center.
She says they made the decision to open the Sheridan Center before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now it is open and there are 12 beds with a full run clinic and an educational center.
“Until you have housing and water and shelter, you can't get better. So if we can provide people's core shelter, their medication, their follow up therapy, their doctor's visit and the other issues,” she says.
She says the respite center can be used for 30 to 60 days.
Sullivan says they will have volunteer nurses and weekly check-ins from Piedmont Mental Health and First Choice Primary Care.
One problem she saw at Daybreak, she says, was people from Daybreak going to the hospital, recovering, and then needing assistance again.
“You might stay 30 or 60 days because what we’re trying to do is not just get over their medical issues but get over there social issues and that takes a while,” she says.
Kay Gerhardt is on the board of Depaul-USA and has been for years she says.
She says she is excited to see how the Sheridan Center help affect Daybreak.
“It's gonna help in many ways for one thing it's going to help the people we serve because we will be able to provide them better services,” Gerhardt says.
She says she was not sure if the dream of this center would become a reality.
“To see it actually come to fruition is like a dream come true,” she says.
Gerhardt says, the Sheridan center is where the respite center has the 12 rooms, education, and a new clinic. She says they are always looking for volunteers.