Medical students in the Population-based Urban and Rural Community Health track at UMass Medical School-Baystate volunteered their time to paint a new Mental Health Association’s (MHA) 8-bed recovery home in Springfield on Thursday July 15, 2021.
(Photo: UMMS student Dina Blanter; PURCH students Kaan Apaydin, Vanessa Avalone; Credit: Underwood Photography)
They were joined by residents of MHA's LGBTQ-only recovery house in Holyoke, with whom the students had visited in June.
Painting together gives the students the chance to build a relationship with current MHA residents at the same time that they are preparing a new home for future residents.
Their aim is to build a long term partnership with MHA.
The PURCH track is centered on the needs of local communities and trains medical students to be Excellent Diagnosticians who are Empathetic, Reflective, Team-oriented, and Leaders that can be led.