Camden Coalition
Comprehensive Collectivist Community Care With Camden Coalition
Student Intern:
Katharine Ryan, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Academic Preceptors:
Mara Gordon, MD, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Anthony Rostain, MD, MA, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Community Preceptor:
Laura Sorensen, Camden Coalition
Community Site:
Camden Coalition was previously an extension of Cooper Hospital. It later became an independent, multidisciplinary nonprofit center dedicated to helping community members with complex healthcare needs overcome a wide variety of barriers to care. Its offering includes, but is not limited to, legal services, housing services, Medicaid/Medicare assistance, and clinical restructuring for addiction medicine. The Coalition also participates in advocacy work to help mitigate the underlying root causes of social and medical inequities that generate barriers to care. It has expanded its work from Camden to all of South Jersey and is one of four major hubs in the state that provide these services. The Coalition also works with other organizations across the country that do similar work and with newer groups interested in establishing their own regional hubs. This sharing of knowledge, experience, and perspectives helps strengthen the efficacy of the work and demonstrates the widespread need for humanistic, holistic care that goes beyond strictly clinical practice. https://camdenhealth.org/
Team’s Experience:
The Bridging the Gaps intern conducted a literature review and an interview
questionnaire/survey for a qualitative research project on the implementation process of office-based addiction treatment (OBAT) and medication-based addiction treatment (MAT) by PCPs/appropriate specialists. The intern’s work also included verifying the presence or absence of NJ Medicare/Medicaid-funded community and social resources on the MyResourcePal database; dental/oral health community health worker training, including providing an overview of the connection between oral/dental and whole-body health and best practices for working with clients to encourage preventive care and habits; and attending home visits for the Housing First program, shadowing a nurse who performed wellness check-ins, checking BP and pulse rates, reviewing medications, and checking that upcoming medical appointments were appropriately scheduled.
Reflection:
Katharine Ryan: “Given my past career in academia, much of my prior advocacy work has focused on promoting equitable pedagogies and constructing support systems that increase that participation and retention of students of historically excluded backgrounds in STEM education and careers. This especially includes Black, brown, Indigenous, Latinx, LGBTQ, disabled, and neurodivergent students. In addition to improving accessibility, the ultimate goal of this work is to uplift marginalized perspectives that critically question, halt the reproduction, and supplant the practices and dogmas in Western STEM that historically were shaped by (and even weaponized to support and justify) capitalist-colonialist structural violence and oppression (Blakey and Watkins 2022, Liscum and Garcia 2022). Participating in Bridging the Gaps helped expand my personal knowledge and perspective on how such shifts in our healthcare education can translate into anti-racist and social justice-oriented work in clinical practice. I found our weekly didactic sessions immensely useful in teaching us about subjects ranging from medical racism to how to provide trauma-informed care. These are lessons I believe should be required of all future healthcare workers. What was most impactful was getting to see these lessons in action at my site in Camden, New Jersey: The Camden Coalition. This experience helped further develop my career goals in family and community medicine. I feel I will be better informed to care for communities with complex healthcare needs, especially that related how intersectional oppression is embodied in community and individual health (Gravlee 2009).”
Blakey, M. L., & Watkins, R. (2022). William Montague Cobb: Near the African diasporic origins of activist and biocultural anthropology. The Anatomical Record, 305(4), 838–848. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.24818
Gravlee, C. C. (2009). How race becomes biology: Embodiment of social inequality. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 139(1), 47–57. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.20983
Liscum, M., & Garcia, M. L. (2022). You can’t keep a bad idea down: Dark history, death, and potential rebirth of eugenics. The Anatomical Record, 305(4), 902–937. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.24849
Camden Area Health Education Center (AHEC)
SAP Site Management, Wound Care, and Creating Educational Resources for Clients and Staff
Student Intern:
Alexandria Holroyd, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Academic Preceptors:
Mara Gordon, MD, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Anthony Rostain, MD, MA, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Community Preceptors:
Stephanie Berroa, Camden Area Health Education Center
Martha Chavis, MA, Camden Area Health Education Center
Amir Gatlin-Colon, Camden Area Health Education Center
Jessica Tkacs, RN, BSN, RS, Camden Area Health Education Center
Community Site:
Camden AHEC, located in the Cooper Street Historic District in Downtown Camden, NJ, serves people experiencing substance use disorder (SUD), namely the unhoused and intravenous drug-using populations. Camden AHEC also provides services and resources for other at-risk marginalized communities, including African American and Latina Women, LGBTQ individuals, and people living with HIV or Hepatitis C.
Team’s Experience:
The Bridging the Gaps student intern administered wound care for clients with xylazine-associated skin injuries. After partnering with Dermatology of Philadelphia, clients were given sunscreen for the first time. The intern attended staff development meetings to improve the Syringe Access Program mobile site services and created an educational resource defining and simplifying the top 50 medical terms in harm reduction health for use by clients and staff.
Reflections:
Alexandria Holroyd: “I did not expect to relate to the SUD/homeless population so strongly, but I saw pieces of myself, particularly my own experiences with trauma and mental health, reflected in so many of their stories. The main difference between us was that I had a vast support system within my family and friends throughout my upbringing that helped me survive with my own mental health differences, which was beyond humbling. Although it is harsh to admit so, I used to turn away from homeless individuals on the street out of discomfort or judgement, but now, I see them as people surviving against the staggering odds of a system that has failed them, and I want to be part of changing that system and making these people feel human and valued despite circumstances that leave them so detached from reality, to others, and to society as a whole. I got to see firsthand how little acts that reinforce your humanity can be very grounding and healing.
This shift in perspective marks the most important growth I’ve experienced through BTG. I started the summer focused simply on creating a new project to extend upon the services offered by AHEC, but I’m leaving with a deeper sense of responsibility to fight inequity from within the medical system and advocate for the people who suffer the injustices that lead them to substance use disorder. I now understand that “helping” people isn’t about fixing them or pulling them out of where they are, it’s about showing up, consistently and compassionately, in the spaces they already inhabit, and meeting them where they are, not forcing our expectations of their recovery onto them. It’s about respecting their autonomy and listening to what they say they need.
Looking forward, I want to bring this mindset into my career as a physician. I want to continue creating educational resources and to keep working with vulnerable populations with my newfound commitment to learning from them and advocating alongside them. I know I will carry this summer; the stories I heard, the wounds I treated, and the moments of connection with me for the rest of my life, and I will ensure that those who are affected by the systemic injustices and environmental disadvantages suffered by people like the clients I served this summer will always have a place in my practice. I will continue to serve and advocate for them in my medical career.
Bridging the Gaps provided me with invaluable lessons I will carry forward into my future career as a physician. The Wednesday sessions highlighted topics such as gun violence, harm reduction, using art for mental health and community building, and providing trauma-informed care for individuals with behavioral limitations– all of which taught me something new I can use as a doctor. I learned that many narratives surrounding gun violence are false, how the COVID 19 pandemic influenced gun violence, and that education and providing job opportunities significantly reduce gun violence incident rates. I learned that communities in the South of the United States are still unjustly affected by poverty that links back to the Civil Rights movement, and how there is major limited access to healthcare in these areas. I will use the lessons I learned to provide inclusive, informed care to marginalized communities and individuals within those communities as a doctor. The final Wednesday session gave us the opportunity to create art in the form of mural painting and button making, and I hope to encourage my future patients to use art as a form of mental health management and for community building.
My summer with Bridging the Gaps was more than an educational experience that will strengthen my capabilities as a future physician. It also enabled me to befriend people I would not have befriended otherwise from my school, at AHEC, from other medical schools, and members of my community, expanding my circle and creating new lifelong bonds through fun, meaningful experiences I will never forget. For example, I befriended three artists after we did our mural walk in Camden, exchanged contact information, and made plans to collaborate individually and with my school’s art organization. Bridging the Gaps was so much more than a summer internship; it has provided me with a new community of people I will have with me throughout my journey to becoming a physician and onward. It is such an uplifting, positive group of people and an energy that I will carry with me for the rest of my life!”
Center For Family Services
The Village Initiative: Camden Community Outreach at Center For Family Services
Student Intern:
Madeline Pitera, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Academic Preceptors:
Mara Gordon, MD, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Anthony Rostain, MD, MA, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Community Preceptors:
Andrew Adams, Re-Engagement Center, Center For Family Services
Megan Lepore, Chief of Staff, Center For Family Services
Veronica Ramos-Cruz, MS, MSW, Vice President, Center For Family Services
Community Site:
Center For Family Services (CFS) connects the residents of Camden, NJ, to social services in counseling, addiction recovery, education, family support, housing, and workforce development. Its mission is to support and empower individuals, families, and communities to achieve a better life. CFS’s community hub is located at the Wiggins Center (400 Mt. Vernon Street, Camden).
https://www.centerffs.org/about-us
Team’s Experience:
Through the Village Initiative Program, the Bridging the Gaps student intern and a CFS social worker partnered with the Camden County Police Department to visit homeless encampments throughout the city and offer social services and transportation to social services. They collected contact and personal information from clients and provided sanitary kits, wound care kits, and refreshments. The BTG intern was responsible for following up with the provided contact numbers 30, 60, and 90 days after the first contact to see if those individuals were able to access services, chiefly at Living Proof Recovery Center. The BTG intern helped close all the cases from the previous year and all the cases prior to April.
Reflection:
Madeline Pitera: “I learned so much during my summer with Bridging the Gaps. Going into my first outreach session, I was prepared to be met with a lot of pushback from the community. Riding around with the police, I was unsure if anyone would trust us enough to talk to us. To my surprise, the first people we reached out to were interested in our work and wanted to create a plan with us to access services. That set the tone for the rest of the day. We were able to meet with tens of people and provide transport for a few. The bond built by the clients, social workers, and police was inspiring and gave me a deeper appreciation for the Camden community.”
Joseph’s House of Camden
Understanding Barriers at Joseph’s House of Camden
Student Intern:
Yash Valia, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Academic Preceptors:
Mara Gordon, MD, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Anthony Rostain, MD, MA, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Community Preceptor:
Kevin Moran, Joseph’s House of Camden
Community Site:
Joseph’s House provides 24/7 shelter for those who are unhoused in Camden, NJ. The shelter provides three meals a day, daily laundry and shower facilities, and access to social services. For those who struggle with substance use disorder, peer recovery specialists and medication-assisted treatment are available on-site.
Team’s Experience:
The Bridging the Gaps student intern served lunch to shelter residents, distributed bag lunches to nonresidents, conducted personal hygiene classes, and developed signage to encourage good hygiene practices.
Reflections:
Yash Valia: “The experience allowed medical students to witness socioeconomic barriers that impact one’s ability to care for themselves. Additionally, by listening to the stories of shelter guests and staff, I realized how important it is to break the stigma surrounding homelessness and regarding people with substance use disorder. BTG lectures educated us on important topics such as gun violence, smoking cessation, harm reduction, vaccine efficacy, and reproductive health. These topics will be essential in the changing political climate and during my time as a physician.”
Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative (SNJPC)
The Role of Family Health in Community Care
Student Intern:
Mariam Mohsin, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Academic Preceptors:
Mara Gordon, MD, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Anthony Rostain, MD, MA, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Community Preceptor:
Maya Shenoy, MPH, NCNTT, Program Manager (Tobacco)
Community Site:
The Cooperative aims to support family health via maternal-fetal and newborn care throughout South Jersey, as well as provide resources for children of varying ages. Its Breathe Strong division focuses on tobacco cessation and pediatric asthma care and includes options for management and treatment, along with educational resources. Using evidence-based and harm reduction techniques, the program reaches a wide range of individuals and directs families toward healthier futures.
https://www.thecooperative.org/
Team’s Experience:
The Bridging the Gaps student intern’s main deliverables centered on spacer education. Although clinically underutilized, spacers are an important tool for pediatric asthma
management. Through the creation of a presentation about asthma care, the intern introduced the topic of spacers and subsequently expanded on it in a one-pager to be distributed in primary care and pediatric clinics. The intern also expanded the topic of smoking cessation by creating an informative flier.
Reflections:
Mariam Mohsin: “BTG CHIP has broadened my horizons and allowed me to better interact and learn from the community. It has also taught me about needs that are specific to the Camden/Philadelphia area, which I was not aware of previously. These lessons can be applied to many urban areas that I hope to serve in the future. This includes the importance of nutrition on heart health and the accessibility of nutrition to those without stable food sources. Furthermore, I became aware of the barriers to care for those without permanent addresses. This factor makes it more difficult for them to receive both prescription and over-the-counter medications and equipment, especially as many of these items now are mail-away orders. I aim to help alleviate these disparities in the future during my healthcare education and career. Through BTG CHIP, I am able to make more concrete goals when implementing change and finding short- term solutions when working towards long-term change.”