New service-learning grant supports community partnerships
Jane Hamilton, PhD, MPH
Two McGovern Medical School faculty members will transform community partnerships into hands-on learning opportunities after receiving the inaugural Service-Learning Grant Award from the Office of Professionalism at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.
Jane Hamilton, PhD, MPH, associate professor in the Louis A. Faillace, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Lauren Mellor-Crummey, MD, MPH, assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, received the award for their project, “Service-Learning: Supporting Nutrition, Mental Health, and Chronic Disease Prevention and Management for Men Pursuing Recovery at the Open Door Mission.”
Lauren Mellor-Crummey, MD, MPH
The grant provides up to $5,000 to McGovern Medical School faculty to develop innovative, specialty-specific service-learning projects that intentionally integrate community partnerships into medical education. Service-learning combines meaningful community engagement with structured reflection and academic learning objectives, giving students opportunities to strengthen their clinical and professional development while working alongside community partners to address real-world health challenges.
“It is an honor to be selected for the service-learning grant,” Mellor-Crummey said. “We are thrilled to be able to create opportunities for medical students to obtain hands-on experience serving a vulnerable population through health fairs that integrate nutrition, physical activity, and mental health topics with the goal of providing Open Door Mission residents with tools to promote their own well-being.”
The initiative gives McGovern Medical School students the opportunity to work directly with men experiencing homelessness while gaining experience in community-based healthcare. Through a partnership with the Open Door Mission, students will learn how social, economic, and environmental factors influence health while caring for individuals living with substance use disorders and other chronic medical conditions.
The program also reinforces core areas of medical education, including service learning, interprofessional collaboration, lifelong learning, and competency-based training.
“We are honored to have been selected to develop a service-learning project that engages medical students in learning about the delivery of integrated behavioral healthcare for underserved populations in community settings,” Hamilton said. “We have designed a project that provides opportunities for medical students to develop basic clinical skills in both mental health treatment and chronic disease prevention.”
Students will prepare for the experience by completing educational modules covering topics such as social determinants of health, chronic disease management, nutrition, mental health, trauma-informed care, motivational interviewing, and patient advocacy.
They will then apply those lessons by helping lead a series of wellness fairs at the Open Door Mission. These events include blood pressure and weight screenings, nutrition education, stress management activities, movement-based wellness programs, therapeutic gardening, behavioral health support, and connections to primary care.
Throughout the program, students also participate in guided reflection exercises designed to strengthen their clinical skills, build confidence in caring for underserved populations, and deepen their understanding of the barriers many patients face when accessing healthcare.
“This project is closely aligned with my research, as individuals experiencing homelessness and living with psychiatric illness are at a particularly high risk for poor health outcomes,” Hamilton said. “We are grateful to the Open Door Mission for partnering with us on this initiative and look forward to strong engagement from McGovern Medical School students.”