• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

Public Health Coordinator Cindy Lee, left, talks to Medical Coordinator Yen Kim Bui outside the U

A white van of medical supplies pulls up to the corner of Sycamore Avenue and Romaine Street on Wednesday evening. Within an hour, the sidewalk is transformed into a makeshift clinic, complete with two exam rooms set up from tarps and army cots, and three tables to hold medical files, provide referrals, and distribute free hygiene kits.

The UCLA Mobile Clinic is open for service.

Thursday marked the third anniversary that the student-run clinic has been in existence at UCLA.

Every Wednesday the Mobile Clinic Project drives out to West Hollywood to provide free medical services for the homeless.

The MCP provides flu vaccines, antibiotics for infections, and cough and cold treatments. It also cleans and wraps wounds, checks for athlete’s foot and blisters, and performs blood pressure and blood glucose checks for people with diabetes.

“There is supposed to be a medical safety net for people who don’t make a lot of money, but sometimes there are people who are shunned from society that fall through cracks in that safety net. We like to think of ourselves as the safety net to the safety net,” said fourth-year psychobiology student Chris Moriates, an MCP undergraduate coordinator and former Daily Bruin assistant editor.

Success stories of the clinic’s clients show what the “safety net” has achieved over the past three years.

The clinic’s first client was its first success story. Tiny, a misnomer for a 7-foot tall man, had been homeless for decades. When the clinic first met him he had diabetes, an addiction to drugs, and a long open wound with decayng flesh on his leg.

“Homeless people are used to being ignored, and we all take for granted that we have someone we can talk to, but these people have nobody,” Moriates said.

“We talk and listen to them. The idea is that that’s more therapy than providing medication. We’re providing them with a basis to ... hopefully once again integrate themselves in society,” he said.

Today, thanks in part to the MCP, Tiny is clean, housed, and saving money to buy an RV.

MCP volunteers include undergraduate students, medical students, attending physicians, and public health professors.

“I think it’s important to give back to the community because it gives you a greater appreciation of what you have and what circumstances are like for others out in the real world,” said fourth-year neuroscience and English student Jo Marie Tran Janco, an MCP coordinator.

Ele Lozares, a UCLA neuroscience student who was once homeless herself, understands these circumstances and is now an MCP case worker coordinator.

“When I was out on the street I figured if I ever left that life I would help the people who are still there,” Lozares said.

To further help its clients, the MCP refers people to other locations if it does not have the necessary resources to help.

When a man came to the clinic with shortness of breath, the clinic immediately called an ambulance and the man later underwent open-heart surgery.

“I’d like to think our intervention helped that,” Moriates said.

However, events like this can also remind the MCP of its limited capabilities as a student-run organization.

“We’ll see people who are sick, and you want to do more for them, but you can’t for circumstantial reasons. You can’t help as much as you’d like to, and its frustrating sometimes,” Janco said.

However, regardless of the difficulties they may encounter, MCP members feel their efforts are worth the results.

“It’s amazing how attached people become to it. I find it therapeutic. If I’ve had a stressful day, I always feel better after coming to the clinic,” Lozares said.

The MCP began three years ago when the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition, which provides dinner to homeless people every night, asked Professor Michael Prelip from the School of Public Health if UCLA could help.

“I was impressed with what they were doing, especially as a volunteer-driven organization. ... It seemed like a great opportunity for us and the clients they were serving,” Prelip said.

Prelip helped begin the program which had no more than 10 volunteers when it started. Three years later, the number of volunteers has doubled.

“I was very proud of the initial students, and every group of students since that point has built upon the past successes and made it better. My pride has grown over the years, and I’m so incredibly impressed with what students are doing,” Prelip said.

The students view their successes not by the number of homeless people who receive medical service, but by the number of people who trust the students enough to return weekly simply to socialize.

“I think the most valid measure of our success is that people keep coming back to us to talk, just to hang out. They send their friends to us. ... It’s great,” Janco said.

The MCP receives funding through a combination of fund-raisers and grants. But members said the state budget has made some grants less reliable, and that they want to increase their self-sufficiency by securing private donors.

The clinic has recently expanded beyond its weekly outings to West Hollywood and has begun a project titled “Common Ground.” Twice each month the MCP provides free health care to the homeless youth at a drop-in center in Santa Monica where teenagers can obtain food, watch movies, and spend time off the streets.