The UCLA Student Run Homeless Clinic, led by UCLA medical
students and faculty advisers, provided free medical care and
advice for the Santa Monica homeless Saturday morning as a part of
its bimonthly program.
The clinic, which is supported by donations, grants and funding
from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, addresses the needs
of homeless individuals and families who are currently living at
the Westwood Transitional Housing Village or the Salvation Army
Santa Monica Shelter.
Medical students run the clinic as either volunteer work or as a
part of their graduate coursework. They are able to practice skills
that include interviewing, taking vital signs, giving vaccinations
and other basics of physical examination.
On Saturday, the students provided iron supplements to a patient
with anaemia and gave advice to another patient whose heart rate
was elevated.
“We try to make it a learning experience for students, as
well as a way to provide care for the patients that are
here,” said Amy Yule, a fourth-year medical student and
outgoing chief for the project.
Yule said the clinic project is meant to be comprehensive and
inclusive, in that the team is “multidisciplinary” and
includes students and advisers from UCLA’s medical, dental
and public health schools.
Undergraduates are also encouraged to participate.
Dr. Ashley Christiani, faculty adviser and program director for
the clinic, says that including so many different medical
perspectives not only facilitates students’ learning
experiences, but is also “much more effective in addressing
the plethora of needs that (the homeless community) has.”
Christiani also says that students are encouraged to engage with
their patients on a personal level so that the clinic experience
helps cultivate physicians who are sensitive to the needs of the
homeless community.
“The approach that we have is very nonjudgmental,”
Christiani said. “We sit and listen to their stories and try
to help beyond just the typical (medical) issues.”
Christiani said that encouraging the students to do this is
important because it facilitates their development as empathetic
doctors and people.
“It’s so wonderful in many ways because you’re
developing physicians who are going to be sensitive to this
population,” she said.
But despite the valuable learning experience the free clinics
provide for students, Christiani and Yule said that without their
work and the work of the Venice Free Clinic ““ a non-UCLA
service which also provides care to the homeless in West Los
Angeles ““ the health needs of this community would probably
go unaddressed.
Christiani said the clinic provides a crucial service to Los
Angeles and some of its least fortunate residents, and that
participating in this kind of work is the reason she went into
medicine.
“I wanted to get this feeling of really connecting with
the community,” Christiani said. “There’s
something so wonderful and so pure about providing health care
without charging money for it … without demanding anything in
return.”
One patient echoed this appreciation for the work that
Christiani and the medical students are doing.
“It felt OK,” he said. “I appreciate it coming
from the community.”