Cal State Monterey Bay students are bringing health care to the homeless in the Chinatown area of Salinas.

In collaboration with Dr. Kenneth Gjeltema of Peninsula Primary Care, CSUMB’s chapter of the American Medical Student Association and students from a biology service learning course launched a “suitcase clinic” in the fall of 2015.

Modeled on similar projects at UC Berkeley and UC Davis, and building on Dr. Gjeltema’s 15 years of experience with the Berkeley project, students learn to work sensitively with the homeless and other marginalized patients, taking medical histories and making presentations to the doctor.

The Berkeley project started in 1989 by first-year students in the UC Berkeley-UC San Francisco joint medical program as a mobile clinic that traveled directly to homeless clients. The program was named for the suitcases in which the students carried their supplies.

The upper division biology service learning course, BIO 378S, taught by Professor Henrik Kibak, places seven to nine students at the clinic for about five months of the year. The AMSA chapter guarantees staffing between semesters and during the summers, allowing for year-round operation of the clinic. That’s critical in order to develop and maintain trusting relationships with the patients, many of whom have a history of mistreatment and have developed a deep distrust of service providers.

Each Tuesday evening at 5:15, students set up the clinic and begin intake of patients. The doctor arrives at 5:30 and sees patients until 6:30. From 6:30 to 7, a debriefing is held and then students take down the clinic and return to campus. CSUMB staff members are on site at all times for safety and logistical reasons.

The clinic has been busy every week. It provides valuable access to health care in Chinatown, and it's also proving to be an inspiring learning experience for the students, especially the aspiring doctors.

Many of them are first-generation college students with minimal exposure to physician role models; the experience puts them in close contact with a doctor over an extended period of time. Because of the venue, it also provides an authentic “story to tell” for their medical school applications, helping to make them more competitive.

The students hope to expand collaborations with other campus departments, including nursing, and add medical and social services such as optometry, public health, nutrition, dentistry and mental health counseling.

The suitcase clinic is the newest initiative to be launched at the CSUMB Chinatown Community Learning Center, and is part of the university’s expanded focus on health and wellness in the neighborhood. Since 2006, CSUMB students have helped to support a variety of programs in Chinatown, focusing on job training, computer training and access to social services.

Published March 4, 2016

This story, by Professors Seth Pollack and Henrik Kibak, originally appeared in the spring 2016 issue of Reflections, the newsletter of the Service Learning Institute. Used with permission.