Improving mental health care access for people experiencing homelessness through service-learning

This poster represents a growing collaboration between the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine Psychiatry residency program and the Roanoke Rescue Mission’s G. Wayne Fralin Free Clinic. Residents in the psychiatry training program are offered the opportunity to volunteer their time and services at the clinic. Leadership, organization and scheduling of the resident volunteers is managed by a resident volunteer who collaborates with clinic staff. The clinic staff schedule appointments for initial mental health evaluations, medication management and psychotherapy. Supervision of the residents is by a residency faculty member who is also the director of mental health services at the clinic. From January through September 2015 the psychiatry residents and the supervising attending treated 138 patients during 331 clinical encounters. Per the Free Clinic Association, each visit is valued at $160.83, which equates to $53,234.74 in mental healthcare. The residents had 108 scheduled volunteer hours however this did not include time for writing notes, taking phone calls or emergency service visits. As resident involvement grows the program hopes to provide services 5 days a week with the possibility of some additional weekend hours, and plans to collect data about the influence this work has on the residents’ attitudes about working with people without homes.