OUWB students volunteered Wednesday at Michigan Humane’s One Health Michigan, checking in on people seeking care for their animals to help them manage any stress they might have related to COVID-19.
Stationed near the entrance of Michigan Humane’s Rochester Hills entrance, the OUWB volunteers visited with those taking advantage of the One Health Michigan program.
One Health provides free spays and neuters, microchips, vaccines, heartworm tests, and other preventative services to pet owners in need. Additional resources are available, including information about services through Forgotten Harvest and Michigan 2-1-1, the free, confidential service that connects people with community-based organizations in the state.
Michigan Humane, formerly known as Michigan Humane Society — one of about 60 OUWB community partners — holds the event twice a month.
Keeley Fuller, general manager of Michigan Humane’s Rochester Hills campus, said having the OUWB students participate in the event is important.
“Our goal is to make sure we are addressing any human health care needs as well the needs of pets,” she said. “Whether they have questions about COVID-19 and its vaccines, or have any other health care-related questions…we don’t want people to feel like they need something for themselves and we can’t provide that or at least point them in the right direction for resources or information.”
Appointments are scheduled ahead of time as a COVID-19 precaution. More than 50 people has scheduled visits for Wednesday.
Blumline (standing) talks with an participant in the One Health event. |
Rising fourth-year medical student James Blumline said it felt good to interact with members of the public, especially since COVID-19 has limited such opportunities for more than a year.
“I’m looking for community engagement and opportunities to talk to more people in a not necessarily strictly medical setting,” he said. “We’ve been very focused on clinical stuff while community service opportunities have been harder to come by.”
Rising fourth-year medical student Kunal Kedar expressed similar feelings and said volunteering is “more rewarding than some of the other things we do.”
“It’s a very stressful time for a lot of people between job concerns for some, the pandemic for others…it’s just a good time to really talk about stress reduction,” he said. “I know how important it is to be able to manage stress and have productive outlets.”
Kedar said he used the day to gain a better understanding of how people are managing pandemic-related stress “and see if there’s any recommendations we can make.”
Rising fourth-year medical student Cristian Solano spoke with Detroit resident Tandra White, one of the people who took part in One Health. White said she appreciates how informative the event is overall as well as the compassion demonstrated by OUWB students.
“I like how informative it is…and it felt very nice for the student to come up to me and ask me how I’m doing,” she said.
For more information, contact Andrew Dietderich, marketing writer, OUWB, at [email protected].
To request an interview, visit the OUWB Communications & Marketing webpage.
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