Ithaca Students Provide Specialized Care at Free Clinic

Ithaca College students are pairing up with the Ithaca Free Clinic right here in Tompkins County. Beginning this fall Occupational Therapy students volunteer at the clinic on a weekly basis. The students provide OT care for uninsured residents of Tompkins County and specifically the Ithaca Community. Associate Professor at Ithaca College, Julie Dorsey, is the faculty adviser of the program and says she was approached after the Ithaca Free Clinic expressed a need for rehabilitative services to the College.

“I became the point-person for the OT department to run the needs assessment,” Dorsey says. “I ran it as a class [last] Spring… to figure out what the actual need was in Tompkins County”.

Dorsey says that the need was found to be significant. In the video below, Graduate student Taryn Michelitch describes the process that the research class used to find out how badly Tompkins County needed OT services. Michelitch has been involved in the program since students first began research with Dorsey last Spring.



“We offer services that involve physical care, emotional, cognitive… OT is really a broad field,” says Anna Yahner. Yahner is a graduate student who joined the small group of students directed by Dorsey earlier this fall. “If someone comes in with a problem that limits their shoulder range of motion and that limits how much they can do in their daily life, we’ll work with them on their shoulder.”

Yahner says that although the Free Clinic does not currently have the resources to provide community integration services, they are aware of those services through other organizations. She adds that this is done on a case-by-case basis.

“Generally OT’s do community integration types of things,” she says. “We are pretty aware of what’s out there [in the community] so we can refer people according to their specific needs if they do need services beyond the Clinic.”

Those in the county who are in need of occupational services often need the care that IC students now provide. Dorsey talks about the vicious circle that community members can get dragged into without proper therapy in the video below.




The Ithaca Free Clinic is located at 225 S. Fulton St in Ithaca New York. Occupational Therapy services are now offered from 4-7 p.m. on Tuesdays by appointment. The number to reach them at is: (607) 330-1254
-- Written by Joy Kucinkas