ZVMS has launched a new educational and service opportunity for Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine medical students to learn to bring health care out of the clinical setting and to underserved populations. In this “Street Medicine” elective, medical students and local partners from agencies serving people experiencing homelessness in Olmsted County will begin to craft ways to address unmet health needs.
Altogether, 28 first- and second-year medical students have signed up for this opportunity to connect with Olmsted County in a new way and learn “street” appropriate approaches to common health conditions of people experiencing homelessness.
The Street Medicine elective will begin on Monday, September 13, 5-7 pm, with an orientation at the Rochester Community Warming Center (903 W Center St), which will serve as the elective’s classroom. Service professionals and medical students will pool their knowledge about unmet health needs and barriers and then brainstorm possibilities for the elective and beyond.
The Landing MN will serve as the site for the clinical experience of the Street Medicine elective.
The elective will run throughout the academic year until May 2022.
Pioneered by Dr. James Withers in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1992, Street Medicine is an emerging medical field delivering health and social services directly to the unsheltered homeless in their own environment. The approach of Street Medicine is “to engage people experiencing homelessness where they are and on their own terms to reduce or eliminate barriers to care access and follow-through” (Street Medicine Institute website).