Dr. Audrey Kuang is Central Health’s director of high-risk populations. Having joined Central Health in 2022, Dr. Kuang was among the first physicians hired by the hospital district to provide direct care to patients, specializing in care for Travis County’s unhoused population. She completed her undergraduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her medical studies at the University of Chicago-Pritzker School of Medicine. She then completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California, where she also served as chief resident. Prior to becoming part of the Central Health team, Dr. Kuang joined the staff of Central Health-affiliated CommUnityCare in 2017 as an associate director and has served as the subject matter expert for individuals experiencing homelessness. Since her arrival in Austin, she has also served as an assistant clinical professor within the Department of Population Health at the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.
Courses
Medical Respite Care and Dignified Design: Opportunities for Creating Spaces for Healing for the Unhoused Community
Medical respite care is defined as acute and post-acute care for people experiencing homelessness who are too ill or frail to recover from a physical illness or injury on the streets, but who are not ill enough to be in a hospital. Every medical respite care program shares the same fundamental elements: a short-term, safe place to stay, allowing people experiencing homelessness an opportunity to rest, recover, and heal in a safe environment while accessing medical care and supportive services. These programs are a critical opportunity to provide safety and opportunity to connect with providers and services to address the many factors contributing to a person’s experience of homelessness. To attend to the safety and healing of end users, programs would do well to employ intentional, trauma-informed, human-centered design approaches that support the mental and physical health needs presented by this population. Dignified Design is one such approach that prioritizes the needs of individuals accessing and delivering services in medical respite settings through a clear framework of principles and practices. This webinar will provide an overview of medical respite programs, their role in communities, and how the field of architecture can contribute to these programs through a Dignified Design approach, which centers the needs of people experiencing homelessness.
This session was recorded live on August 12, 2025.