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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Clyde L. Smith, MD, MPH, DTM&H¹, Eva Metalios, MD², and Ramin G. Asgary, MD, MPH, MSc¹. (1) Depts of Medicine and Family and Social Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 3544 Jerome Ave, Bronx, NY 10467, (718)579-2500, lannysmith@post.harvard.edu, (2) Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, CHCC, 305 East 161 Street, Bronx, NY 10451

Training a resident to become a primary care physician demands not only instruction and modeling in clinical excellence, but also attention to the oft-neglected “social wellbeing” component of health which pervades and can be indivisible from the patient's physical and mental health. Because a significant number (in one study more than 5%) of persons born outside of the United States and seeking medical attention within the US may be survivors of torture(1), integral training in how to assess immigrants and refugees for past and ongoing trauma and how to prepare an affidavit for asylum-seeking survivors of torture has for more than a decade been within the core curriculum in the Residency Programs in Primary Care and Social Medicine of Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in collaboration with Doctors of the World—USA, and includes provision of service in the form of Attending Physician-supervised assessment for trauma and affidavit preparation for asylum-seeking survivors of trauma. This presentation will review how the Human Rights Clinic at Montefiore functions, as a potential guide or inspiration to providing similar training and service at other Academic Health Provider Training Programs.

Learning Objectives:

• To understand the functioning of a long-standing residency program-based human rights clinic and the potential application of that model to other training programs.

Keywords: Human Rights, Refugees

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No