Making a difference: Occupational therapy fellowships impact homeless healthcare in Los Angeles
May 20, 2020

By Matthew Lee / USC Homelessness Initiative

Julian Prado works at the JWCH Center for Community Health, located in the heart of Los Angeles’ Skid Row. The community clinic is a specially designated Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) to serve individuals experiencing homelessness, providing a safety net and essential health services including primary medical care, behavioral health, substance abuse recovery, dentistry, HIV specialty care, and podiatry. Prado meets with patients to talk about their daily routines, their goals, and their challenges in order to guide them toward the healthiest possible behaviors and create a bridge to resources.

For example, Prado tells of a patient who attends substance abuse recovery groups to maintain sobriety. This patient’s challenge was to make the meetings on time. Together, they explored the reasons that were causing her to miss most of her support group time and realized that it was taking her a very long time to put on her socks due to arthritis and mobility limitations from past injuries. It may seem surprising that a simple daily activity that many take for granted could interfere with her sobriety support system. Prado used his occupational therapy knowledge to make her a device out of a plastic water bottle, rope, and duct tape, known as a “sock donner”. This allowed the patient to put on her socks more easily and stay on track with her sobriety, proof that even small adaptations can translate into big life accomplishments. The tagline for occupational therapy, according to Prado, is “we are going to support you in activities that you want to do, need to do, or are expected to do.”

Read the full article at USC Homelessness Initiative.

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