East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP)

Congratulations to our fearless program director, Dr. Yasmin Meah MD, MSH '01, on being the 2020 Jacobi Medallion Recipient! The Jacobi Medallion is one of the highest honors that the Mount Sinai Health System bestows upon current or former colleagues. The recipients have made exceptional contributions to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Mount Sinai Health System, The Mount Sinai Alumni Association, or the fields of medicine or biomedicine. EHHOP wouldn't be what it is without you!

The registration for the 2020 NYC Student Run Free Clinic Conference hosted by Albert Einstein College of Medicine's ECHO Free Clinic is now live. The theme is "Free Clinics in Times of Crisis," and it will be held virtually on Sunday October 18, 2020 1-4 PM EST. The keynote speaker Utibe R. Essien, MD, MPH, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of Pittsburgh, will be giving a presentation on "Justice for All? Health Equity and the COVID-19 Pandemic." Additionally,... EHHOP's Mental Health Clinic Student Chair Sam Powell and Faculty Director Dr. Craig Katz will be holding two breakout sessions on "Psychological Distress in the Face of a Pandemic: An Observational Study Characterizing the Impact of COVID-19 on Immigrant Outpatient Mental Health." Lastly, there will also be a poster session featuring various research and quality improvement projects that addressed the pandemic. To RSVP to the conference, visit nycsrfcc.eventbrite.com. For questions about this conference, please email Jessica Lee at [email protected].

Welcome to Mount Sinai and welcome to EHHOP, class of 2024! We hope you enjoyed orientation yesterday and are as excited as we are for you to join our various clinic teams! If you have any questions about recruitment, please contact [email protected]

Last Sunday, EHHOP delivered 28 AC units to our patients in anticipation of heatwaves expected to hit NYC in the coming weeks. Thank you to @bjswholesale and all of the volunteers who helped make these deliveries possible! Stay safe and stay cool!

Thank you to Warby Parker and National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics (NAFC) for the donations of N95 masks as we begin transitioning back to in-person clinic! Looking forward to our future collaborations!

Did you know heatwaves kill more New Yorkers on average than any other extreme weather event? Partnering with us to protect our EHHOP community, BJs has generously donated 60 fans and AC units. Now, we need your help with distribution. On Sunday 7/12 we need drivers to donate 3h of their time for deliveries, time window TBD. Please email [email protected] if you can volunteer as a driver and/or know someone who you would like to refer.

EHHOP is committed to caring for those who our country and government leave behind. In our pursuit of providing healthcare to marginalized populations, we see the cruelty of systemic racism and oppression every day. The murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many other Black men and women leaves us heartbroken. Indignant. Furious. We are committed to standing in solidarity with Black patients and communities. The United States needs systemic change, even though it wi...ll not be easy. We are committed to working toward a future where everyone truly believes that Black lives matter. As part of the first steps toward that future, here is what we are doing right now and you can too: The Mount Sinai chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) has put together a wonderful list of articles, books, podcasts, films, and organizations (attached). These are ways to become informed, donate, and take action in the fight for racial justice. Thank you SNMA. And lastly for those who are current Mount Sinai students and faculty, there will be 2 events on Thursday (6/4) afternoon: (1) A Racism and Bias Initiative (RBI) event: "Let me breathe: Black Lives Matter and White Fragility" at 4 PM over Zoom (2) I Can't Breathe: A Tribute to Black Lives Lost at 5 PM over Zoom. #blacklivesmatter Sinai SNMA

Dr. Yasmin Meah, our Program Director, was featured on the Today Show earlier this week! https://www.youtube.com/watch

"We can and must do better". Brittany Glassberg James Blum Cynthia Luo Kevin Weiss Jonathan Pan Yasmin Meah https://www.nydailynews.com//ny-oped-our-safety-net-is-bro

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-patients-at-ehhop-during Hi, many of you might be familiar with the East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP) from our... wedding fundraiser, but I just wanted to make another plug for supporting them during this time. EHHOP is Mount Sinai’s student-run free clinic that serves hundreds of low-income, uninsured residents of East Harlem. As I sit and type this from the comfort and safety of my own home, I am reminded of the huge disparity that exists between myself and the patients that EHHOP serves. Many of us have had the immense privilege to stay inside, minimize exposure, remain healthy, and possibly even continue working during this pandemic. Our patients do not have this privilege. Even before COVID-19, I have watched patients become homeless as they are unable to work due to disease or disability, or as they become the caretaker of another patient who is no longer able to take care of themself. Food insecurity and rent struggles were already topics commonly discussed in our clinic before this pandemic occurred. Many of our patients are even the ones who are delivering your food or groceries, who continue to work as nannies or cleaners during this time. Or, their jobs have disappeared without any reassurance of their return once the pandemic subsides. For the most part, our patients don’t have job security. They don’t get sick leave. They aren’t eligible for a stimulus check. Patients who can’t afford to stop working can’t socially distance theirselves - and patients who can’t afford to socially distance themselves get sick. COVID-related illness continues to rise in our patient population. It seems inevitable that COVID-19 is going to leave a tremendous and devastating mark on our EHHOP community. Please consider donating to this fund to help support our patients during this time. 100% of these funds will go towards addressing our patients’ direct needs, from groceries to rent assistance to medical care. Regardless of whether you can donate or not, please also consider signing this petition (bit.ly/norentny) to #CancelRent, not just evictions in NYC, and contact your assembly members and senators to support the New York Health Act (https://www.nyhcampaign.org/contact_your_senator) to provide health insurance to every resident of NY state!

We've completely evolved our clinic model in the last three weeks to continue caring for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's been three weeks of constant challenge and innovation. We'll have more to share about this work soon but right now, we're looking for some new thermometers (among other supplies), can you help?

"We treat those who would otherwise go untreated. And we do it well, because we have to." - Dr. Yasmin Meah. On April 10, 2019, EHHOP celebrated 15 years of service to the East Harlem community with a fundraising gala! We would not have made it to this point without the support of countless students, staff, faculty, alumni, friends, and family. Thank you so much to everyone who came to the fundraising gala and supported EHHOP last night and through all the years! We are so excited for the next 15 years of service in recognition that health is a human right.

Some more photos from #EHHOP15 Gala!