Creating Change
Drawing on our expertise in physical therapy, speech-language pathology, primary care, occupational therapy, nutrition, and psychiatric rehabilitation, our school is creating an expanded network of care for underserved populations.
In the past year, we worked to strengthen the delivery of mental health services, widened access to a free primary care clinic, and brought a collaborative care approach to our physical rehabilitation services through the addition of a speech-language pathology clinic.
Ann Murphy, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions, is director of the Northeast and Caribbean Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC), which was established at SHP through a federal cooperative agreement in 2018 to bring evidence-based research and new approaches to mental health care.
In 2021–22, Murphy said, the center’s initiatives included educating the New Jersey judiciary on how to better serve those with mental illness, working with the state’s public schools on mental health support systems, and helping teenagers in Puerto Rico who suffered trauma from Hurricane Irma, earthquakes and the pandemic.
Over the past year, around 9,000 trial, appellate and municipal court judges and judiciary staff heard the personal stories of those living with mental illness who landed in the court and criminal justice system.
“These trainings combined the messages of people with lived experience and experts. The experts talked about the prevalence of mental illnesses, the true risk of violence, which is lower than you might expect, the role of medication and treatment, and the real possibility of recovery,” Murphy said.
“The most powerful message shared through the personal stories was that they wanted to be seen as people and treated with understanding and respect, not treated as a rap sheet or someone defined by their past experiences and behaviors,” she added.
The MHTTC also has teamed up with the Department of Education to create a resource guide, which walks schools through how to create a comprehensive, school-based mental health support system. It offered webinars on building a framework to meet mental health needs.
In Plainfield, our physician assistant program has long been a community partner in a clinic offering free primary health care. Last summer, the program assumed full operation of the Health Outreach Practice Experience (HOPE) clinic, finding it a new, larger home with the help of an alumni donor after it closed during the pandemic.
In 2021–22, a team of physician assistant program faculty, staff and supervised students cared for 221 patients who made 400 visits. The experience gave students more than 1,200 hours of service-learning.
“This new model has allowed us to work closely with our community partners to create a program that provides much needed primary care services in a community where nearly 30 percent of the population is uninsured,” said Frank Giannelli, assistant professor and director of the HOPE clinic.
“It simultaneously provides an experiential learning environment for our students to learn how to navigate socioeconomic barriers to health care by creating treatment plans that are realistic and achievable for patients.”
In Newark, our faculty and students have provided therapy services in a community clinic for over a decade, but the addition last fall of a speech-language pathology clinic offered students first-hand opportunities to practice interprofessional education—and opened more pathways of care to those need it most.
Because a large cohort of patients seen in the speech-language clinic were those with brain trauma, a special clinic opened for the summer for people with traumatic brain injury who needed speech-language pathology, PT, and occupational therapy services.
“We have been able to share referrals to speech and OT, and vice versa. We are tapping into the resources in our department,” said Susan Pitzel, associate professor and director of the Physical Therapy Participatory Clinic.
Entering its 11th year in Newark, the PT clinic has made an impact on those who come for weekly therapy who might otherwise not have had access to health care, Pitzel said.
“Because of our teamwork with the community, we have established a presence here. Our community partners may change, but the community knows this team is here for them,” she said. “And we have a generation of professionals who want to serve and have an impact on the communities around them.”