Field Placement: VA Greater Healthcare System -- Northside Comprehensive Care Center (NCC)
Location: West Los Angeles VA
Preceptor: Jim McGuire
Student Name: Folasade Windokun
Year: 2002

Homeless veterans: unique lives, stories and needs.

I did my internship at the VA Greater Healthcare System, in the West Los Angeles VA site (VAGLA). Within the campus, I worked at the Northside Comprehensive Care Center (NCC), an intervention program created to address the health and social needs of homeless veterans. The clinic consists of primary care, mental health and the homeless center, co-located under one roof to increase access to services for its clients.

I worked under the supervision of Jim McGuire, the Northeast Program Evaluation Center's (NEPEC) Director for Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education and Networking Groups (CHALENG). Jim McGuire, is one of the co-investigators in the New Clinical Program Initiative, a grant that partially funds the NCC. Jim McGuire's research interest includes the homeless population, conducting patient satisfaction surveys and access, utilization and the delivery of healthcare.

I chose NCC as the site for my internship for three main reasons: the on going projects, the population served and my preceptor. At the time of my interview, the NCC was a dream, not a reality. Although the project had been funded, there was still debate about the opening date of the clinic. I was excited as the prospect of observing the birth of a new clinic - the relocation of three distinct entities, the integration among its staff and the problem-solving necessary to get the clinic off its ground. The population to be served by the clinic (homeless veterans) was one I had not worked with before. It consisted of men between the ages of 30 - 50 years of age, who aside from being homeless had numerous mental health and substance abuse problems. In addition, Jim McGuire seemed concerned about my learning experience. We discussed my interests and created my internship around the things I wanted to accomplish.

The duration of my internship was 14 weeks (June 16 - September 18). During this time, I was involved in the following projects: administering the staff integration survey, developing a patient satisfaction survey, developing and pilot-testing the access center survey, tracking and conducting follow-up interviews of participants involved in the Primary care project and analyzing the jail outcome data.

During the course of my internship, I learned about the issue of homelessness and its relationship to health. I also had the opportunity to learn about the VA healthcare system and its various research projects. More importantly, I was able to gain the skills (qualitative and quantitative) that I was interested in acquiring.

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