CHS HEAL Pathway partners with CUSM to deliver “Street Medicine” to local homeless

Kristin Griffith

HEAL Pathway students met after school on Friday, November 12 to package health supply kits for the local homeless residents at Mary’s Mercy in San Bernardino.

Colton, CA—On November 13th, 2021, the California University of Science and Medicine’s Street Medicine Interest Group collaborated with Colton High School’s HEAL program to distribute medical supplies to local homeless at Mary’s Mercy in San Bernardino.

Colton High’s HEAL pathway student gave up time after school on November 12 to put together the medical kits. “It went really good,” Kristin Griffith, HEAL adviser said. “We had roughly 30 students show up.”

The HEAL students have been collecting health products from the community for the past month in anticipation of the November 13 distribution event. The kits included hygiene items like toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, and hand sanitizer, as well as basic medical supplies such as band-aids, Neosporin, and menstrual products.

“I’m super proud,” Griffith said about the work her HEAL students accomplished. “We did a good job collecting supplies. We collected enough supplies to last for months.”

In addition to the medical and hygiene supplies, the HEAL students also left kind and inspiring messages for the kit recipients.

Paul Suchil, who is in his junior year with HEAL, said this was his favorite part of the experience. The students put “messages to hype them up,” he said, adding that they added stickers and decorations.

“Getting to help people was nice. It was especially nice to help homeless people specifically,” said junior HEAL student Nathalie Cordon-Lopez. “If you get to help them, you get to understand them and see them as a person.”

With medical supply kits in hand, on Saturday, CUSM Street Medicine student volunteers worked with California State University San Bernardino’s nursing program to give approximately 30 medical checkups.

These checkups include vital screenings like blood pressure and sugar level checks. Flu and COVID tests are provided along with vaccinations. Injuries and wounds are treated, and referrals to specialists are provided for more serious concerns. Mental health screenings are also given.

The CUSM Street Medicine program was founded by a group of volunteer medical students in August 2020 who started regularly holding events at Mary’s Village around October in which they were supervised by professional doctors and school faculty advisors. Those events are now held monthly.

The majority of the medical volunteer students are first and second-year students. Through these outreach events, they learn medical basics and how to work with members of the community.

Overall, Street Medicine provides an essential resource for the homeless to receive basic medical attention.

Within the homeless community, there is a sense of distrust for the medical community. This is due to the population facing shame, stigmatization, indifference, and limited knowledge within the medical field about how to work with those experiencing homelessness.

Within the homeless community, there are also barriers to getting medical attention and help. These include: lack of transportation, lack of identification, and lack of knowledge about where and how to get treated.

What the CUSM street program does is recognize that the homeless community here in Colton are very vulnerable. Poor hygiene, infrequent to nonexistent medical checkups, no access to mental health services—knowing this, they want to help with medical assistance.

Funds to support CUSM’s Street Medicine program include school funding, donations from the community, and recently Colton High School’s HEAL program to distribute medical supplies to Mary´s village.

CUSM hopes in the future to expand and partner with the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center to set up a mobile clinic, which would provide more help and resources during these events.

Also with the rise of COVID, the Street Medicine Program hopes to partner with an organization to hold flu and COVID events to distribute vaccination shots to our community.

Brandon Agundez, Director of Outreach for the Street Medicine Interest Group, believes not only does the program provide essential help for our community through Mary´s Village, it also means a lot to Colton’s HEAL students as well.

Agundez also recognizes the importance that the homeless population has with each other and what this means to us as a community. 

He states that “it’s amazing to see a community that is not blood-related, but still cares for each other keeping in contact with each other. That has inspired me.”