Because Health Care is a Right, Not a Privilege

Poverty and Health Care

Content Manager: Brenda Proffitt, MHA

UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE POVERTY & HEALTH CURRICULUM
The University of New Mexico School of Medicine is developing and integrating a four-year curriculum in poverty and health. The goal is to prepare tomorrow’s clinicians to effectively address the profound impact of poverty on individual and population health. These web pages include the curriculum plan; teaching and learning activities; resources to guide others in developing curricula; and many resources specific to teaching poverty and health.

THE UNDERSERVED PATHWAY
The Underserved Pathway supports medical students and residents interested in working in underserved rural, urban and international communities and with underserved populations. The Underserved Pathway provides an array of mentorship, academic and experiential activities. The core curriculum is web-based and includes the following eight modules: Who Are the Underserved; Patients with HIV/AIDS; Medicare 101; Race, Ethnicity & Healthcare; People with Disabilities; Chronic Poverty; and Intimate Partner & Domestic Violence. Administered by the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

NOT ALL OF US ARE SAINTS: A DOCTOR'S JOURNEY WITH THE POOR
drs journeyA powerful report of the experiences of a physician living and practicing medicine in the inner city. David Hilfiker, whose previous book (Healing the Wounds, 1985) described his practice in rural Minnesota, moved to Washington, DC, in 1983 to join a small ecumenical religious community dedicated to working with the urban poor. With his wife and three young children, he moved into an apartment in Christ House, the first two floors of which were a medical recovery shelter for homeless men. Besides caring for patients there, he practiced at a nearby community clinic. As Hilfiker notes, this book is less about medicine than about class, race, and culture-about the "awful power of poverty to break the human spirit." Often his patients, whose identities have been altered here, are beaten down by life, addicted to drugs or alcohol, mentally disturbed or incompetent, and living on the street or in shelters for the homeless. The chasm between the middle-class, white Hilfiker and his poor, black patients is ultimately unbridgeable, and he confesses freely to his feelings of helplessness, anger, frustration, and guilt as he comes to understand that he cannot redress all of society's wrongs-the problems of education, housing, and jobs are simply too enormous. He even comes to fear that he cannot practice good medicine, for his patients' circumstances make it impossible for him to prescribe the best treatments. In 1993, feeling not at all saintly, he retreated to Finland for a year of recuperation with his wife's family. Hilfiker's future remains a question mark, but clearly he does not intend to abandon the poor, and one hopes that he will not abandon writing, either. A deeply disturbing picture of the degradation of ghetto life and a painfully honest account of one man's attempt to do something about it. From Kirkus Reviews | Kirkus Associates, LP | ©1994 | All rights reserved

HealthSTAT: STUDENTS BUILDING SKILLS TO SERVE
A growing number of health professionals argue that community service, advocacy and leadership constitute core professional responsibilities with important implications for responsibly serving poor communities. Yet, few schools' curricula address the skills required to fulfill those responsibilities. Such skills include community partnership, public speaking, fundraising, consensus-building, organizational management, community organizing, team-building and interprofessional collaboration. When courses are offered that address these skills, they are often didactic and may be marginalized in the curriculum and by students. This article describes one extracurricular organization through which students have taught each other the skills needed to work on behalf of underserved communities, Health Students Taking Action Together, Inc. (HealthSTAT). It also discusses challenges intrinsic to this learning modality, including limited time and rapid leadership turnover.
Mohan CP and Mohan A | Journal of Health Care for the Poor & Underserved | 18 (2007): 523 - 531

A GUIDE TO COMMUNITY-CAMPUS PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE HEALTH OF PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS
National Health Care for the Homeless Council and Community-Campus Partnerships for Health. 59 pages. April 2004.

MEDICAL MANAGEMENT OF VULNERABLE & UNDERSERVED PATIENTS
by King Jr TE, Wheeler M, Fernandez A, et al.
medical management This fairly comprehensive text offers the background and practical knowledge required to teach health care professionals to care for vulnerable populations, both at the individual and the systems level. Well organized and easy to read, the book is in three sections: Principles, practice and populations. Many of the chapters address issues of particular concern to homeless health care providers: Case management, multidisciplinary care models, promoting medical adherence and behavior change, mobile outreach, caring for alcohol and drug users, and caring for oneself while caring for others. Each chapter contains specific objectives as well as discussion questions and resources that can be practical for physician-educators. This is the only reference currently available that focuses on the treatment of patients living with chronic diseases in poor and minority populations.
McGraw-Hill | Lange Medical Books | 2006

OXFORD UNIVERSITY HEALTH & HOMELESSNESS PROGRAMME
Oxford University's Health Sciences Continuing Professional Development offers a short course in the Provision of Health Care to People Experiencing Homelessness. The course is ideal for all professionals who have an interest in the field of provision of health care to people experiencing homelessness. To register or for more information, e-mail cpdhealth@conted.ox.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0)1865286941.

This PowerPoint presentation, Oxford University: Provision of Health Care to People Experiencing Homelessness, by Wayne A. Centrone, NMD, MPH, outlines Oxford's curriculum design, facilitation and instruction and reports Dr. Centrone's impressions about how the Oxford program might be relevant to the U.S.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES HEALING HANDS ARTICLES ON POVERTY MEDICINE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES