University of Michigan Medical and Nursing School - Aequanimitas Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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, x 2- MEN'S X 5 MEDICAL XY ' QF. 'X SCHOOL 2 Y GLEE I , CLUB J wi L

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In our medical schools today, there is no opportunity to study the problems of the medically underprivileged. Community in- volvement and community medical training are largely ignored. There is little opportunity for students to develop the initiative of leadership needed to fulfill a comprehensive role as a health scien- tist in society. As a result of this lack of exposure, concern for the human being withers in a severely limiting academic environment. Few students are personally aware of the effects of poverty on health, and most have only a slight impression of the disparity between the quality of medical care provided by our teaching hos- pitals and the care provided to the poor in the community. SHO attempts to provide these opportunities for the student members of the health professions. There has been among the health professions, no one actively speaking with the people. The prejudices deeply ingrained in our society have resulted in a degrading system of welfare medicine. This has led to a kind of racism where the affluent decide itis their duty to take care of the poor. Even SHO's basic tenet: Health care is a right, not a privilege, becomes under the present system, the acceptance of charity medicine by the poor. The insensitivities and indignities of welfare medicine compound the normal anxiety of poor patients concerning their illness. The task of building a socially compassionate, while technically excellent health profes- sion community allied with all the people is paramount. This is the task that the Student Health Organization, along with the Medical Committee for Human Rights has taken on. Health Sci- ence students in S.H.O. are dedicated to the total well-being ofthe individual in the community, as well as the prevention of disease. We are engaged in active community service in order to improve health conditions, recognizing that problems of health cannot be solved without consideration of the political, social, and economic factors. E ta 5? Participants in our projects gain experiences which increase their sense of community participation, and their professional perspective. Most importantly, they announce the presence of the student as a source of responsive assistance to the community. S.H.O.'s record? We havebset up clinics, placed students on committees, opposed the A.M.A., worked with militants and SDS, and directed our own projects. But these accomplishments have provided symptomatic rather than significant curative relief. This is very similar to the welfare worker, sensitive and sympathetic, working in a morally degrading welfare system-weive healed wounds without curing the basic pathology. S.H.O. of the future will not confine itself to first aid. Richard Krouskop C70j ....-':-:.-

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WOMENS 32 it MEDICAL SCHOOL 9 GLE12 il ' 1 CLUB y ' .-H, V Q ', -,