Mobile clinic takes health to heart

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.

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