OUWB Professor Educates Students, Community on Health Care Needs of Special Populations

An advocate for addressing homelessness in the community, Assistant Professor Jason Wasserman, Ph.D., leads second-year OUWB students on a site visit to HOPE Hospitality and Warming Center each year.

In its mission statement, the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine pledges to enable students “to become skillful, ethical and compassionate physicians.”

Jason Wasserman, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical sciences, brings a unique background of knowledge and experience that helps drive the school’s mission of giving students an inclusive understanding of how health care is delivered to a wide range of people, including vulnerable populations such as homeless individuals and others living in poverty.

“It’s very important to expose medical students to the environments in which those who are homeless experience illness so that one day, as doctors, they have at least some reference for understanding the unique health challenges of being homeless, and hopefully, they can adapt the care they provide accordingly,” Dr. Wasserman said.

Each year, Dr. Wasserman leads second-year OUWB students on a site visit to HOPE Hospitality and Warming Center, a low-barrier shelter in Pontiac, as part of a course on the experiences of marginalized populations. Students observe first-hand the unique challenges of caring for individuals who are without a permanent home. The experience broadens their perspective and gives them a better understanding of the diverse patients they will treat when they become doctors.

“I realized that people who are homeless are ordinary people with their own individual hopes and dreams, who for their own reasons, are in this special situation. Anyone at any point in time can find themselves in a similar situation,” said Amanda Stahl, an OUWB student who visited HOPE last spring. “The clients of HOPE should be treated just like every single human being – with kindness and respect. This non-judgmental approach is how I would like to practice medicine in the future. I believe it will make all of my classmates and me more open-minded, empathetic physicians.”

Fellow OUWB student Danny Mammo echoed those sentiments, saying he became more aware of the needs of homeless patients through his experience at HOPE.

“Clearly, stability is an issue I will have to think about as a physician when dealing with patients in the homeless setting,” Mammo said. “I must get to know the resources available in the community I will work in so I can best assist homeless patients with rides, free medication, adequate social support and perhaps even just a safe place to have a roof over their head for the foreseeable future.”

Along with teaching, Dr. Wasserman is an advocate for addressing homelessness in the community. Since coming to OU in summer 2013, he has supported the efforts of the Oakland County Homeless Healthcare Collaboration, an initiative that brings together community partners to improve access to healthcare for those experiencing homelessness in Oakland County. In particular, he has worked on the group’s Hospital Discharge Subcommittee, whose mission is to improve collaboration among various service providers to reduce hospital readmission rates among homeless individuals and achieve cost savings through more efficient care. One of the collaboration’s goals is to create a respite center in Oakland County, where homeless individuals can gain access to recuperative care services after being discharged from a hospital.

“It’s hard to recover from illness or injury if you’re living on the street or in the typical homeless shelter. Respite centers provide a safe and supportive place for recently hospitalized homeless individuals to recover, and they clearly help improve the health outcomes for those patients,” Dr. Wasserman explained. “They also save a significant amount of money by preventing re-hospitalizations, which are tremendously expensive. So, having a respite center in Oakland County would not only help promote the health and well being of our homeless citizens, but it also represents a huge costs savings to institutions and taxpayers. It truly is a win for everyone involved.”

To educate others on issues surrounding homelessness, Dr. Wasserman has given presentations before the Pontiac Rotary Club, at Beaumont Health System’s Innovations in Emergency Medicine Conference and at Beaumont’s Pediatric Grand Rounds program. He also shared his insights in an episode of the PBS show “A Wider World,” which is broadcast throughout the U.S. and Canada. His other contributions include several published articles on homelessness and a four-year ethnographic study of the street homeless in Birmingham, Alabama that yielded the 2010 book “At Home on the Street,” as well as a documentary film titled “American Refugees,” which was released in 2011.