SHAC provides pro-bono medical care for students, community members

It has been 57 years since the Student Health Action Coalition opened its doors, serving as the nation’s first student-run, free clinic. 

SHAC, housed under the UNC School of Medicine, has dramatically expanded since it began as a few medical students providing pro-bono care supported by donors. Today, it includes over 18 services ranging from clinical care to community outreach programs and has student volunteers from across UNC professional schools. 

The coalition’s mission focuses on providing services to students and underinsured individuals in the Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Durham areas. Co-CEO of SHAC and fourth-year medical student Ricardo Crespo said many non-student patients are blue collar workers with no insurance. 

“[SHAC] is very important for, particularly, the underserved patients that we see,” Crespo said. “Some of these patients haven't gotten care in several years, for various socioeconomic reasons.” 

Currently, services include a medical and dental clinic, gender-affirming care, HIV testing, mental health care and physical therapy. 

The organization, however, is not done expanding. 

“It's always innovating and improving," Crespo said. "Over the past few years, we've opened up new clinics, we have a syringe service exchange program, we have the gender affirming care clinic."

Loren Oh, a doctoral candidate for medicine and philosophy in the Gillings School of Global Public Health and former chief operating officer of SHAC, said the coalition applies a holistic approach to health care and evolves to fit the needs of patients. She said the syringe services program offers additional harm reduction efforts such as Band-Aids and first aid care. 

The current chief board of SHAC is made up of  numerous officers who have been a part of organization for multiple years and aims to further improve the quality of care while expanding patient outreach opportunities. 

Emily Kounlavong, co-CEO of SHAC and third-year doctoral candidate for medicine and philosophy in the School of Medicine, said one of the main ways the coalition reaches patients is through word of mouth. Part of SHAC’s efforts to increase patient outreach includes attending events in the community where underserved populations in the health care field may be. 

For example, Manager of SHAC’s HIV and STI Clinic Caleb Easterly said he has gone to the queer health fair in Durham to provide free testing and health counseling. 

“That's really exciting to be able to affect such sexual health on a larger scale,” he said.

Crespo said SHAC has a team called Get Covered Carolina that helps connect patients with insurance opportunities and financial assistance applications to receive insurance coverage and more permanent care options. 

“We try to offer these services — these acute services — but also our specialty services like physical therapy, ophthalmology, et cetera. But our end goal was always to transition them out into the community,” he said.

SHAC’s future plans include working with the UNC audiology program to expand their services and increasing funding opportunities through grants. Kounlavong said SHAC receives an endowment from the UNC Health Foundation, but funding for some departments within the organization comes from a variety of sources like the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the UNC School of Nursing.

In the future, the organization hopes to collaborate with the UNC School of Law as a medium to provide health care-related legal advice, create a community advisory board and make SHAC more sustainable by digitizing information. 

“A lot of the quality improvement stuff that we're doing, it is with the goal of trying to provide more opportunities for students as well as better care to our patients,” Crespo said. “So we're really trying to increase undergraduate opportunities too — the sky's the limit.”

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