'Street medicine' course aims to help homeless in Rochester
Sep. 13—Zumbro Valley Medical Society is launching a new educational and service opportunity for Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine medical students to learn to bring health care out of the clinical setting and to underserved populations.
The "street medicine" elective will help medical students and local partners from agencies serving people experiencing homelessness in Olmsted County to craft ways to address unmet health needs.
Twenty-eight first- and second-year medical students have signed up for this opportunity to connect with Olmsted County in a new way and learn "street" appropriate approaches to common health conditions of people experiencing homelessness.
The elective began Monday with an orientation at the Rochester Community Warming Center, 200 Fourth St. SE, which will serve as the elective's classroom. Service professionals and medical students will pool their knowledge about unmet health needs and barriers and then brainstorm possibilities for the elective and beyond.
The day center operated by The Landing MN in the Rochester-owned Silver Lake Station, 702 West Silver Lake Drive NE, will serve as the site for the clinical experience of the street medicine course.
The elective will run until the academic year ends in May.
