Bethany House Services

Rachel Podell, Summer 2018

Working as an intern at Bethany House Services (BHS) during the summer between first and second year was an amazing experience. Bethany House is a family homeless shelter that accepts any homeless family within the Cincinnati area. They offer many services to their clients including case management, housing placement, childcare options, and a children's learning program titled Kidz Zone. Working alongside Jasmine Prince, our main project was to develop a curriculum for the mothers of Bethany House educating them on family planning, smoking cessation during pregnancy, and stress management. We developed and taught these 3 classes for the women, performing pre and post surveys to assess knowledge gained throughout the course. Upon our exit from the program, we left our curriculum with the life skills facilitator so she can continue to teach the classes in the future. We also planned a health fair for the families of Bethany House where volunteers (including other UCCOM medical students) taught the residents about healthy eating and lifestyle habits as well as performed blood pressure and blood glucose checks; we even had a visit from the Cincinnati Fire Department to teach the kids about fire safety! In addition to these two main projects, we assisted the social work staff in putting together and organizing client files. We also assisted Denise Hill, the child/parent coordinator, by writing the monthly newsletter, organizing 2 field trips to La Rosa's and a movie, and arranging donated school supplies. As interns for BHS, you should be flexible in your daily schedule at the shelter and come ready to help where ever necessary. This site offers the ability to complete community services alongside a public health focused research project.

I loved working at BHS this summer. Some may say it's an untraditional way for medical students to spend their summer between first and second year, however it was a perfect fit for me. I have always been interested in serving my community and learning about UHP was one of the reasons I chose to matriculate at UCCOM. As a future physician, I believe I need to be comfortable working with all types of populations and my experiences at BHS have definitely prepared me for that. The homeless population of Cincinnati is incredibly diverse — the women and children I have interacted with this summer come from all over the country and from all different backgrounds. I have learned the importance of listening to everyone's story and not passing judgement. Every resident of Bethany House has their own struggles, just like my patients will one day, and my time here at Bethany has prepared me to better interact with all my patients in a non-judgmental, caring way.