Idled help the isolated: Med students aid homebound seniors
Their mission: Taking care of vulnerable people
ABy Dan Sewell
spiring doctors in Cincinnati whose studies were interrupted by the coronavirus outbreak have morphed their mission into taking care of people who are especially vulnerable to the pandemic’s dangers.
University of Cincinnati medical students started a “COVID-19 match” program modeled on one that began in Louisville, Kentucky, and is also being replicated around the country.
Volunteers are assigned someone who is 60 years or older or who has health problems that make it particularly dangerous to risk exposure by leaving home. The volunteers do grocery shopping, pick up prescriptions or perform other errands - or just send cards and check in.
Annette Rybicki, 88, who lives with her son, Dr Frank Rybicki, is among the early users.
Rybicki is vice chairman for operations of the radiology department for the UC medical school, which is part of the UC Health System.
His mother has dementia and other illnesses, he said, and caring for her while working from home doesn’t leave much time for grocery shopping.
“It’s no small feat to get food now,” Rybicki said.
This file photo from March 31, 2020, shows Alyssa Kelder, a medical school student at the University of Cincinnati, as she delivers groceries to the home of Yvonne Carrell, in the
Finneytown neighborhood of Cincinnati. (AP) 4,000 per annum for undergraduate courses in Engineering, Technology, Humanities, Liberal Arts, Commerce, Management, Journalism, Hotel Management, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and some other courses.
The scheme is open to NRIs/PIOs from over 40 countries (including Kuwait) having substantial Indian Diaspora population.
The Scheme was revamped and launched in July 2016. Under the revamped Scheme, number of scholarships has been enhanced from 100 to 150 with introduction of 50 scholarships for children of Indian workers employed in the Emigration Check Required (ECR) countries. The Scheme is now applicable to four categories of applicants: (i) Persons of Indian Origin (ii) Non-Resident Indians (iii) Children of Indian workers working in ECR countries (including Kuwait).
(iv) Children of Indian workers in ECR countries — studying in India
The institutions that are covered under this Scheme are:
(i) NITs, IIITs, Schools of Planning and Architecture
(ii) “A” Grade institutions accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and recognised by University Grants Commission (UGC).
(iii) Other institutions covered under Direct Admission of Students Abroad (DASA) scheme.
Income criteria will be applicable to all four categories. Applicants will seek scholarships after they obtain admission in the approved list of educational institutions.
Applications are required to be submitted online at SPDC portal — http://spdcindia. gov.in/login/index.php. Last date for submission of applications was extended till Oct 14, 2016. Nodal officer for SPDC is P. Bharadwaj, Deputy Secretary (OIA-II), Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, Tel: 00-91-1124197952, Email: dsoia2@mea.gov.in
His mother drew as her match Kinsey Barhorst, a neurology student who was soon doing their food shopping, armed with cellphone pictures Rybicki sent of his mother’s favorite veggie burgers and other delights, including pasta and chocolate.
“She’s been phenomenal,” Rybicki said. “And it gives me time to try to help save people’s lives, so it’s huge.”
The Cincinnati-area match program began in late March after two students, whose clinical rotations set for this spring were postponed because of the virus, started texting each other.
Cassandra Schoborg, a psychiatry student who lives nearby in Covington, Kentucky, told Tommy Daley, a pediatrics student from Springboro, Ohio, that a bright side was being able to help her homebound grandmother.
Both immediately realized there must be many older people who needed help, Daley said. Schoborg told him about a Louisville program she had heard about.
“Tommy said, ‘We can totally pull this off,’” she recounted.
A friend created a website, and Daley and Schoborg started lining up contact information for those in need from churches and put out a
A male scarlet tanager is seen on a tree on World Migratory Bird Day, Saturday, May 9, in Lutherville-Timonium, Md. (AP)
call for volunteers.
They quickly got 40 medical students, and the number is growing with the participation of nonmedical students and friends of students from UC and Northern Kentucky University, across the Ohio River. The program now serves around 120 clients, and the operators plan to offer current services at least through May.
In Louisville, Erin Hinson couldn’t be happier to see her program adopted elsewhere. Versions are up and running in cities across the country, she said. She now has help managing it from University of Louisville students and alumni.
Hinson, 35, a former legislative assistant for the Louisville Metro Council, is marooned at home during the outbreak because of diabetes and asthma. “I’m stuck in my house, and I really want to help my community,” she said.
She thought about similarly homebound people who don’t have a spouse, friends or relatives nearby to help them out.
She developed her plan in mid-March to follow Jesus Christ’s command to “love thy neighbor” by using technology, she said. She started with a do-it-yourself site before local ad agency Red Tag jumped in to build her a sophisticated, information-loaded site. (AP)