On a rainy Saturday morning, students gathered at the Health Science Campus for the annual Student Run Clinic Symposium. This year the focus being interdisciplinary care for those facing homelessness. The crowd included students from various disciplines which included medicine, occupational therapy, pharmacy and PA.
The morning kicked off with an address from Brett Feldman, MSPAS, PA-C, who did a digital keynote address. In an effort to visualize what the new Street Medicine team does, the group viewed the PBS special “Close to Home Street Medicine”(which was up for and won an Emmy the same day as the Symposium). He also answered questions submitted by attendees prior to the event. In the end he encouraged students to come together and speak up about how they want to be involved in street medicine at USC.
Following this presentation, the group was able to hear from Corinne Garcia, a woman who previously faced homeless on Skid Row. Describing her time on the streets as a rat nest, she expressed how important human contact was to her experience and the emotional barriers to getting health care on the street.
“Sometimes we are processing our own self-shame,” said Garcia. “I can’t see my primary, so I see my drug dealer. That’s what I really want. In the end, you can only meet people where they are at.”
Other speakers included Carrie Kowolski, MPAPA, PA-C, an alumnus of the PA program, who now works with the Venice Family Clinic on their street medicine team.
Later students participated in workshops and came together on interprofessional teams to dive into a case study.