![\"Second-year](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/levine_susan_20171025_KWallace_9187-students-Ana-and-Martina-300x217.jpg\")
Currently, the second-year medical students co-leading the PHR-PSR student chapter are Anastasia Barros, 24 of Cheshire and Martina Sinopoli, 23 of Southbury. Together their group of more than 30 medical and dental students are committed to health advocacy outside the classroom to address patient health, whether clinical, social, environmental, or otherwise, through policy, advocacy, and community outreach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are right on the verge of launching our Asylum Clinic at UConn Health\u2019s Outpatient Pavilion,\u201d said Barros about the student-led program building on the successes of UConn Law School\u2019s student Asylum and Human Rights Clinic<\/a> founded in 2002. That clinic\u2019s work has legally helped more than 120 people who have fled his or her home country\u2019s political, religious or other persecution.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many ways students are improving the lives of the underserved members\u00a0of the Hartford community,\u201d said Sinopoli \u201cOne example of our student advocacy is the development of the UConn Immigration Rights Initiative.\u00a0 Our student Asylum Clinic will soon perform pro-bono forensic physical and psychiatric examinations to aid immigration attorneys in the preparation of asylum affidavits.\u201d<\/p>\n PHR\u2019s national chapter, which will be honored on Nov. 2 with UConn\u2019s 2017 Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights<\/a> for their longtime efforts to globally prevent human rights violations, has been instrumental in assisting UConn Health\u2019s students with organizing their Asylum Clinic. The national and regional PHR chapters plan to refer those asylum seekers in Connecticut in need to UConn Health.<\/p>\n Students participating in the UConn Immigration Rights Initiative have received training from PHR on how to perform\u00a0forensic evaluations.\u00a0 They will\u00a0use these skills to document\u00a0signs of\u00a0physical or mental health persecution asylum seekers may have experienced.\u00a0 Past abuses likely identified may range from physical scars to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).\u00a0 As other medical issues are identified clients will be referred to the community health services network for follow up care.<\/p>\n \u201cWith proper medical and mental health evaluations and legal guidance a refugee is 90 percent more likely to be granted asylum,\u201d says Barros. \u201cThis will be the best reward possible for us medical students to help increase the chances of these refugees remaining safe here in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n Sinopoli adds: \u201cWith our commitment we can help asylum seekers and have a massive impact on their health and lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Susan Levine<\/a> is the medical director of the student-run UConn Immigration Rights Initiative and heads UConn Immigrant Health, an entity that includes an Immigrant Health\u00a0clinic in general medicine, as well as, a student and a resident curriculum in refugee health.<\/p>\n “Exposing trainees to immigrant and refugee health needs is incredibly rewarding,\u201d said Levine.\u00a0 \u201cIt offers students a window into the global health arena and an opportunity to gain unique skills in\u00a0eliciting complex determinants of health, skills that are transferrable to the care of virtually any patient.”<\/p>\n Fourth-year medical student and the student chapter\u2019s former leader, Dan Rappoport, is grateful that his UConn medical education experience goes beyond the classroom to show students first-hand the ways they can play an active role in advancing healthcare and human rights.<\/p>\n \u201cImmigration and refugees are currently a huge issue in our global society,\u201d said Rappoport. \u201cFor me personally with a Jewish background I know my people were once refugees too. It\u2019s great to see all the energy and momentum of healthcare students getting involved in human rights advocacy.\u201d<\/p>\n Rappoport added: \u201cPHR is the reason our Asylum Clinic is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday, Nov. 3 at 12:00 noon<\/u><\/em> UConn Health will host a special forum with the PHR Dodd Prize winners in Massey Auditorium. The honorees will discuss the ongoing global fight for human rights and the greater role health professionals can play. UConn Health doctors, staff, and students including members of the PHR-PSR student chapter will be in attendance. All are welcome. To learn more visit: <\/em>www.thedoddcenter.uconn.edu\/2017-dodd-prize\/<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This fall UConn School of Medicine students are starting the UConn Immigration Rights Initiative (UIRI) to assist asylum seekers in their pursuit of safe haven in the U.S. Learn how their advocacy efforts have been guided by the internationally renowned Physicians for Human Rights, winners of the 2017 Dodd Prize who are set to be honored Nov. 2-3 at UConn and UConn Health. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":130825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2429,2318,2312,1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-130824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards-scholarships","category-dodd-impact","category-hri","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 03:21:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179163,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130824\/revisions\/179163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/130825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130824"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=130824"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=130824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}