Youth Clinic

Location
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
2300 Bancroft Way at Ellsworth Street
Berkeley, CA 94704-1604
Mondays, 6:00 PM-9:30 PM
Voicemail: (510) 423-3303

Background

The Telegraph Avenue and Shattuck Avenue corridors in Berkeley are meccas for homeless and street-identified youth from around the country. Disenchanted, neglected and runaway youth congregate in Berkeley because of its long history of social activism and for being an inclusive and welcoming place. Despite this image, until just a few years ago there were almost no actual resources available within the city of Berkeley to serve the specific needs of hard-to-reach street-identified youth, due in part to a reluctance amongst this population to deal with the bureaucratic intake and formal processing methods of more traditional institutions.

The city of Berkeley estimates that youth between the ages of thirteen and twenty-three account for 100-200 of the homeless people in Berkeley on any given day. Youth that live on the street are extremely vulnerable to suicide, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, traumatic injuries, and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Existing health care and social service providers in Berkeley report that teenage pregnancy, asthma, infestations, and wound care are other important health issues among Berkeley’s street youth.

Decreasing the incidence of these conditions would not only help the street youth, but benefit the health of the entire community as well. Berkeley has several nonprofit organizations that provide health care services to homeless and uninsured individuals. Each of these organizations has found that youth are reluctant to access their services for a variety of reasons. These include the presence of adults, a lack of trusting relationships with providers, an adult- rather than youth-oriented culture, and inconvenience in terms of time and location.

In July 1997, the Berkeley Chaplaincy to the Homeless began a drop-in center for homeless youth that now serves 20-50 youth per day. Their services include food, recreation, counseling, advocacy and health care. This program has been extremely successful at establishing trust with the youth and providing needed services. In 1998, the Chaplaincy approached the Suitcase Clinic, a UC Berkeley-sponsored, student- and volunteer-run organization with a request to assist in the establishment of a homeless youth-focused health services clinic and drop-in center similar to the existing Suitcase Clinic sites.

The Suitcase Clinic and several other organizations worked to recruit a multidisciplinary team of volunteers and paid staff to provide health and social services, advocacy, and counseling together under one roof for a weekly evening drop-in center for homeless and street-identified youth. Over $10,000 in funds were secured for the Youth Clinic project and partners have made commitments to participate in this effort. The Suitcase Clinic was proud to open the doors to its Youth Clinic in September of 2000, making it the most recent of our drop-in centers. The Youth Clinic strives to provide culturally appropriate and youth accessible services to homeless and street-identified youth which simultaneously increases their opportunities for positive social and physical well-being.

Intake

There is no formal intake process; clients only need to check in with a Clinic Coordinator in order to request the services they would like to receive.

Services Offered

  • Personal hygiene services;
  • Arts and Crafts;
  • Food, including weekly dinners;
  • Recreation;
  • Acupuncture involves a certified acupuncture specialist who uses small needles to restore the body’s harmony and balance, and make the body’s energy flow normally again.;
  • Medical services (biweekly);
  • Health Education and referrals;
  • Chiropractic (biweekly) services provide adjustments given by volunteer professional chiropractors from the community. They mostly treat clients who suffer from minor back pain. Treatment consists of a chiropractic adjustment (directed and controlled pressure of individual spinal bones to their specific positions). Other additional treatments include ice, heat, nutritional advice, and exercise;
  • Optometry (appointment referrals) provides a preliminary eye examination for clients at the drop-in center site given by graduate students in the UCB School of Optometry. Clients needing glasses as diagnosed and then scheduled for a full eye examination at the Meredith W. Morgan University Eye Center on the Berkeley campus. If glasses are necessary, they are issued to the client at no cost. The lenses are subsidized by the Suitcase Clinic while the eyeglass frames are all donated from various people and places;
  • Basic counseling and social services;
  • Educational Services;
  • Foot Care has volunteer students provide gentle podiatric care, hand out nail clippers, emery boards and anti-fungal to our clients, who often walk for hours and have limited access to showers;
  • Legal;
  • Continuity of Care Advocates (CoCA).

Services Desired

  • Herbal Medicine;
  • Veterinarian.

Rape Protocol

Youth Suitcase Clinic policy on the removal of an identified perpetrator of a rape, sexual assault, and/or sexual harassment is as follows:

  • All allegations of rape/sexual assault/sexual harassment will be taken seriously;
  • The alleged perpetrator will be suspended from Suitcase Clinic drop-in center grounds for a period of two clinic days from the date of report, during which time the case will be evaluated;
  • The client who has been asked to leave can check-in with the Clinic Coordinator on the third clinic day for re-admittance.

Procedure

The following procedure is specific to a case of rape; however, it should be applied to any case of sexual assault or sexual harassment.

In the case that a client approaches a Suitcase Clinic volunteer and identifies her/himself as having been raped, ask if s/he is comfortable talking about the incident.

I. NO

  1. Is there someone else you would rather speak to?
  2. If the client insists that s/he does not want to continue the conversation, end it with the assurance that if and when the individual is ready to talk about the incident that Suitcase Clinic staff is available;
  3. Client should get a copy of the referral handout of other resources available.

2) YES

Keep in mind for each question that your role is to show the survivor the options available to them. The ability to choose was a right that was taken away from them through the act of rape. Empower the survivor with the ability to choose their next steps.

  1. Are you comfortable talking to me? Or is there anyone else you would rather speak to?
  2. What are your concerns?
  3. Is the person who raped you here?
  4. Would you like the person removed? State the Suitcase Clinic policy on removal of perpetrator. If a client needs to be removed from the premises, have another Suitcase Clinic staff member do so;
  5. How long ago did this happen? If it was within the last 72 hours, encourage a medical examination. Forensic evidence is viable only in that time. The exam should be encouraged even if it has been over 72 hours, if not for legal reasons then for the health reasons;
  6. Would you like a medical exam? Medical personnel are required by California law to report all rapes to the police. The responding team, Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), consists of the responding police officer, advocate or rape crisis counselor, victim witness, and the district attorney. The client should know this information if requesting a medical exam. If the survivor does not want the police involved the client can say ‘I had painful, unprotected intercourse.”
  7. STD/HIV testing?
  8. Pregnancy test?
  9. Would you like emergency contraception? The medical team on site has a supply of emergency contraception;
  10. Have you thought about hurting yourself? Threats of suicide will be taken seriously. Refer to working with suicide intervention/prevention training.

After working with the client, the Suitcase Clinic volunteer must inform the mental health worker of the case. He or she is the point of contact for all rape (sexual assault and sexual harassment) cases and will coordinate additional services and counseling if necessary. Clinic staff personnel should debrief the session with the mental health worker, or if s/he is unavailable, than with another staff member. Keep the confidentiality of the client in mind. This is not a case that is discussed at the service provider’s meeting at the end of the night. The mental health worker will judge whether the whole staff needs to be informed of the situation.

Record Keeping

The Youth Clinic will keep a log-book, maintained by the Clinic Coordinators, for every clinic date. Included in this book will be:

  1. Any action/uncomfortable situations that were reported that night;
  2. A general summary of how the evening went;
  3. A record any “noteworthy information;”
  4. Suitcase Clinic “warnings.”

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