- College of Medicine Student Affairs Students
As homelessness and substance abuse rates rise, UCF College of Medicine students are doing their part to bring addiction and recovery education to Florida’s homeless population.
On any given night nearly 3,000 people are homeless in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties according to the 2024 Point-In-Time analysis, and 2 in 3 homeless individuals have lifetime histories of drug or alcohol use disorders according to American Addiction Centers.
Students wanted to respond, so they visited with patients recovering from alcohol and drug abuse.
“We would ask community members in recovery, ‘What can we, as medical students, do to make an impact and help you?’” said Jeremy Sheiber, a third-year UCF medical student. “In these conversations, we were told that there was a gap in education, that patients didn’t fully understand what was going on with their bodies.”
From there, students organized with Dr. Pia Valvassori, a College of Medicine faculty member who operates a primary care clinic for homeless people at Orlando’s Christian Service Center.
Based on her mentoring, UCF’s future Physician Knights began triaging patients at the clinic and meeting with them after their appointments to answer questions about addiction and connect them with available community resources.
Dr. Valvassori says that roughly 50% of patients coming to the clinic need healthcare education and UCF medical students are helping fill that need.
“We want to serve the communication in terms of advocacy and education and reduce the stigma surrounding substance use disorder,” said Sheiber. “Our goal is to empower people going on their recovery journey to be able to have the tools to be able to advocate for themselves and improve their self-efficacy as they go on their recovery journey.”
In addition to helping patients experiencing homelessness, the medical students have held educational workshops for patients and staff at recovery centers.
Through these efforts, the students hope to reduce the stigma often associated with substance abuse disorder and provide information about the science of addiction and recovery – how substance abuse impacts the brain and other organs and how successful recovery involves more than willpower.
“Addiction isn’t a moral deficit that people choose to go through” said Kelviyana Walker-Valentin, third-year medical student.
“We want to keep giving out this information to people who work in recovery and recovering addicts themselves so they understand what is happening to their bodies, and empower them to see themselves as patients treating their illness rather than people who made this choice.” said Walker-Valentin.
Walker-Valentin’s commitment to helping patients recover from substance abuse is personal. Both of her parents are recovering addicts with over 20 years of sobriety, and she considers herself a “product of recovery.”
“Recovery gave life to me, and I want to fight against addiction so that people in recovery can see be empowered and see that it breeds great things,” she says.
Dr. Valvassori says in addition to helping individuals in need, the students’ volunteerism is helping them become doctors who better understand communities and the challenging circumstances their patient face.
“Many of the patients at our clinic come from some of the harshest conditions, with a lot of negative experiences, and we focus on creating positive changes,” she said. “I’m proud that our medical students come away changed, with a better understanding of their patients.”
Sheiber and Walker-Valentin are entering clerkship training at community hospitals and clinics so leadership of the program will now transition to a new executive board of younger medical students. Walker-Valentin is optimistic that they will carry the torch to continue to expand the program.
“Medical students in this generation are really trying to care for patients and give them the services they need,” she said, “and this is our way of saying, thank you for letting us take care of you.”
Post Tags
- student affairs students