SHAC is back! September telehealth volunteer sign-up

[Wright, Amy Dawn]

Hi everyone!

We at SHAC Social Work hope everyone is enjoying the semester so far! We have good news - after a couple months of being largely closed to volunteers due to the pandemic, SHAC is now open to telehealth volunteers, both new and returning! If you would like to take a shift this month, please check out this sign-up link.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0445ACA62CA7F94-shacsw24

Here's more info about SHAC and what it looks like during telehealth:

SHAC is a student-run free health clinic that operates every Wednesday from 6:30PM to 10PM where volunteers have the opportunity to work with other social work, medical, and pharmacy students to collaborate on patient care. There is no prior experience required and all social work students are welcome to volunteer.  

  

SHAC looks a little different now that we’re doing it virtually, but the spirit is the same. In our 6:30-10PM telehealth shifts, we are reaching out to patients over the phone whose providers have identified a social work-related need, such as housing or food insecurity. We then ask those patients questions related to their concerns, offer resources based on their needs and our capacity, and follow up with them as needed. 

  

Once we are back in the clinic in-person (or potentially sooner if something shifts), you will have the opportunity to do full needs assessments with patients, but for now we are limiting our role to reaching out to patients with specific needs already identified by a provider. We currently do not anticipate being in person anytime soon.  

Nonetheless, this is a great opportunity for anyone interested in building skills in client outreach, counseling, case management, or for anyone looking to grow their professional network!  

At this time, we are staffing 1 volunteer and 1-2 alternate volunteers per shift. For now, we ask that you only sign up for at most 1 primary volunteer slot per month (unless we send out a cry for more help) so everyone gets a chance to volunteer, but feel free to sign up for as many alternate slots as you'd like. If you sign up as an alternate, you are committing to be available in case we need additional help (such as if we have more patients than expected or in case the volunteer can't make it that night). If possible, we'd love for you to sign up as an alternate for shift(s) that don't currently have an alternate before signing up for shift(s) that already have an alternate, to ensure we end up with at least one alternate for every shift. Please read the BOLD FACED directions carefully before you sign up for a slot.

New volunteers can go ahead and sign up for a shift, and the coordinator for that shift will provide a brief (~30 minute) orientation either during the shift or at another time that works well for the new volunteer. New volunteers will also have the opportunity to shadow and be shadowed during the shift. 

Again, here is the link to the sign-up sheet for the month of September: 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0445ACA62CA7F94-shacsw24

  

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email us at sha...@gmail.com. We look forward to seeing your faces, both new and returning! 

Warmly,

Amy, Ann, and Corey 

Coordinators - SHAC Social Work