Recuperative care center
Have you ever wondered what happens to someone experiencing homelessness who is released from the hospital and needs a safe place to fully recover?
In 2021, RITI Memphis opened the Mid-South’s first Recuperative Care Center for people experiencing homelessness. The RCC offers recovery services for those who are released from hospitals across the Mid-South.
Referrals to the Recuperative Care Center are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and come from area hospitals, emergency rooms, and clinics for patients experiencing homelessness who no longer require medical care but are in need of time and space for recovery and resources for sustainable housing and healthcare. Shelter with Room in the Inn is always free.
Discharge situations that might be appropriate for temporary shelter in the RCC include (but are not limited to) patients who are: post-surgery, undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments, recovering from amputations, receiving IV antibiotics, receiving physical or occupational therapy. All guests must be able to independently complete all daily activities (no caregiver assistance required) and live in a communal environment.
At Room in the Inn, we believe each individual deserves opportunities for lifelong learning and self-empowerment. In addition to direct support, we provide a variety of education and workforce development programming to help guests along their journey. Many of these opportunities are led by volunteers and other community partners. This programming includes groups and classes on Creative Expression, Recovery, Health Education, Nutrition, Exercise, Financial Literacy, and even Bingo Nights!
CARES Act Funding allowed RITI to pilot the Recuperative Care program in March 2020 by providing hotel stays for people experiencing homelessness when discharged from the hospital. 66 Individuals were sheltered and received care through this pilot program in 2020. Once construction on the RITI Campus at the historic Collins Chapel Hospital was complete in April 2021, the first Recuperative Care guest moved into the RCC’s permanent home. Since then, the Recuperative Care program has received referrals from every local hospital. The capacity and services of the RCC have continued to grow each year.
Recuperative Care Center Impact July 2023 – June 2024
BEDS
GUESTS
NEW HOMES
Hospitality Makes a Difference
“Many of us know that when we leave the hospital, it takes some time before we’re able to resume our normal lives. Often we recuperate at home, but that option may not be available for someone who is homeless. Until now, when a person experiencing homelessness was released from the hospital, where they went to recuperate was often left to chance,” -Rev. Lisa Anderson, Executive Director.
Recuperative Care Center in the News
Memphis Magazine, July 2024
“[Tracy] remembers the worst of it, when she had cancer and no place to stay… She had her service animal, so wasn’t eligible at the first place her doctor reached out to, but Room in the Inn accepted Logan and Marley. She was able to have her surgery — her fifth in four years — and stay at Room in the Inn while recuperating.”
Daily Memphian, Feb. 2024
“But very early, we were seeing people were that were ill, too ill really to be going to sleep on a cot or a mattress at a church, people who had had surgeries, outpatient surgeries, people who had pneumonia, people who had chronic illnesses, like cancer, things that weren’t going to get better … “So, we started planning, thinking about a recuperative care center for these people very early on. And so that’s what led us to have this space now.”
Commercial Appeal, April 2021
The hospital once was one of the few places that offered care to African Americans during segregation. Now, it will be the only recuperative care center for people experiencing homelessness in the region. “A location just like this one has been a dream for the most vulnerable and those we have served. In this space, many medically fragile unsheltered Memphians will no longer recover from their illness on the street,” said The Rev. Lisa Anderson, executive director of Room in the Inn – Memphis.