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UCSD Free Clinics Project at Pacific Beach United Methodist Church

"I registered for the Wednesday night clinic shift without realizing I would be working at the Pacific Beach Free Homeless Clinic. When I learned of the assignment, I was concerned about what it would be like to work with homeless people. I was apprehensive about safety and sanitation issues, but primarily about the attitudes and state of mind of the people I would be treating. Would they be mentally unstable, extremely dirty, would I be exposed to diseases? Needless to say, I approached the first night with much apprehension.

As I drove home after the first night I was absolutely inspired and delighted at my good fortune to work in this clinic. I found the patients to be delightful people and their appreciation of our work was inspiring.

Wednesday evening at Pacific Beach Methodist Church for the clients begins with a free, nutritious meal in the church cafeteria. In addition to PCOM's acupuncture clinic, there is a UCSD Medical clinic where medical interns are learning and working with patients as we are. In addition, there is a legal clinic upstairs where USC law students work with the clients. Lots of activities are going on at once, and the atmosphere is one of support and cooperation.

Mary Mahy who developed and runs "Harvest for the Hungry" welcomed us the first night and explained the functions of her organization. Her story of how the clinic began brought tears to our eyes and we were all proud to be a part of her program.

The clinic is set up each night in the basement of the church in a children’s classroom. The walls are lined with delightful pictures and artwork created by the children. The windows with their pleasant pink curtains let in a constant breeze to give the clinic a fresh open feeling. The six treatment beds are set up across the room and supervisor, interns and assistants all work as a team to serve as many patients as we can fit into one three hour block of time. This open setting allows us all to interact, observe and learn from the treatments being administered throughout the night. We all work as a team and the energy is very upbeat and positive.

The patients who come to the clinic are the real joy of the experience. They obviously look forward to this night and most clean up and are pleasant and courteous. The evening is well supervised and they are to be sober and drug free when they come to the clinic. The patients heartfully appreciate the nurturing, healing environment of the clinic and the attention they receive from the PCOM group.

Many of the patient’s complaints are associated with life on the streets or in a stressed environment. Without a comfortable or safe place to sleep, there are numerous musculo-skeletal problems. We also do much work with addiction withdrawal and stress relief. (I have gotten very proficient with the Nada protocol.) We only use acupuncture and massage in the clinic. This challenges us to seek out the best acupuncture treatments possible and to rely on the core of our medicine to produce beneficial results.

There are usually have more patients seeing acupuncture treatment than we have time to handle. As a result, everyone is always very busy and, as an assistant, I have numerous opportunities to participate in patient intakes, evaluation and treatment strategies. We area all called on to utilize as many of our skills as we have acquired in the classroom. In this clinic, no one just stands around watching, we are all working to our capacity.

Many of the patients return each week. This provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate the degree of success achieved by the treatments we administer. Also, because we are so busy, we have much more opportunity to utilize treatment protocols and evaluate the success of one over another on different patients.

I am hopeful that my schedule allows me to continue to participate in this clinic throughout my time at PCOM. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be far more experienced and ready to work as an intern and eventually a practitioner from the experience I am gaining in the Pacific Beach Clinic."

Autumn Zamzow - Intern