A Home and Health Care for the Homeless

Housing and health care are hard for indigent people to find. But if the qualifications are met, they can be found at the Aloha Inn on Aurora Avenue in Seattle

The Aloha has become the site of a student-run project that gives free health care to homeless people. The Aloha provides transitional housing to homeless men and women while they save money for more permanent housing. The residents of the Aloha operate the facility.

“The great thing about the Aloha is that it’s all resident-run and managed,” said Brian Johnson, a third-year UW medical student and one of the planners of the project.

The idea began when Johnson and two others saw the need for a program that could be entirely student-initiated and student-driven. The clinic has been up and running since spring.

The other project creators are Elizabeth Hutchinson, a fourth-year medical student, and Dr. Christine Dehlendorf, now a family medicine resident at University of California San Francisco.

“In the beginning,” Hutchinson said, “Christine Dehlendorf, Brian Johnson and I spent months doing tasks that were led by our dream of designing an interdisciplinary, student-run, free clinic.”

The students spoke to members of the community who had experience with clinics for underserved populations, designed a needs-assessment, discussed the proposal with UW health sciences schools administrators, and sought funding.

The Health Science Partnerships in Clinical Education (HSPICE) supported the students’ efforts. It offered faculty assistance, clinic materials, and money for brochures.

Based on suggestions from Aloha Inn residents, the student chose to emphasize preventive care.

“We do a lot of talking with people about health concerns,” Johnson said. “It’s where we believe we can make the most substantial and sustainable impact.’

Some of the services offered are blood-pressure and glucose checks, education on diet and exercise, smoking cessation, and diabetes care.

To stay at the Aloha Inn, a person must have an income. Johnson explained that residents pay $80 per week in rent. The payment goes into a private savings account until the resident can afford a more permanent residence. The average stay is three to six months.

According to Johnson, first- and second-year medical students do most of the work with the guidance of third- and fourth-year students. This provides a teaching opportunity for the older students, Johnson explained.

At the clinic, Hutchinson performs many tasks. She gets supplies to the clinic, recruits preceptors, brainstorms about education seminars for the residents, and has written a clinic manual that describes the fundamental structure of the clinic and outlines the required tasks.

Students in the schools of social work, nursing, pharmacy, and public health also work at the clinic. Social work students do referrals, education, and assist residents with obtaining services in the community, such as insurance for low-income individuals.

“Social work has been central to the success of this program,” Johnson said.

Pharmacy students give advice on prescriptions and reactions among different medicines. Public health students monitor the effectiveness of the services the students are providing, develop educational curricula and assist with needs assessments.

Johnson gained valuable skills from working at the Aloha and is thankful for the opportunity to make a dream come alive. Among the skills Johnson learned were public speaking and project management.

“We’ve applied for several grants and been able to find funding to get our project off the ground,” Johnson said. “I’ve gotten a chance to get to know students and faculty from across the health sciences and to work with the amazing men and women at the Aloha.”

He believes the work the students do is beneficial to the residents.

“Our aim is to offer a service the residents of the Aloha value and I think we’re getting there,” Johnson said.

Hutchinson said, “Having the opportunity to hear the residents’ stories and play a part in their transition out of homelessness has been a privilege. Working at the Aloha has given me perspective on how rewarding health care can be when your heart is the driving motivation, rather than a grade or a requirement.”