Melanie Cole (Host): MedLinks is a resident-based peer health advocacy program sponsored by Community Wellness at MIT Medical. Trained student volunteers encourage relationships between undergraduate students and MIT Medical by offering advice about its health and wellness services. My guest today is Greg Baker. He’s the coordinator of MedLinks. Welcome to the show, Greg. Tell us, what do MedLinks do on campus for the students?

Greg Baker (Guest): Sure thing. Thanks for having me, Melanie, first of all. The MedLinks program sort of has two major components. The first part is that the student volunteers post and coordinate study breaks or community lectures or whatever other event they seem to think are sort of necessary either to promote the group or to highlight a particular health topic, if there’s something going on on campus or if they want people to know about, something that they might not know about otherwise, MedLinks can sort of do that either in the residences or on campus. It’s going to be open to the entire community. The other thing that they do is that they one-on-one interactions where they live on campus. So, all of the MedLinks volunteers live either in the dormitories or in the fraternities or sorority houses or independent living groups. And we gave each of our volunteers a supply box that has some first aid supplies and over-the-counter medications, pretty basic stuff, and the MedLinks can sort of be a first stop for a student that has a question or a concern about something that’s happening to them, something that’s happening to a friend, anything like that. I think the goal is sort of that members establish rapport with the people around them, and so, if you feel comfortable going to somebody to ask for Band-Aid, then maybe if you’re having trouble in class or you’re having a relationship concern, you may go back to that same person that you’ve already sort of built that connection.

Melanie: Greg, tell us about the trained student volunteers. How are they trained? What are they trained to do?

Baker: We take our new members. We have a training retreat over Columbus Day weekend. It’s a two-day retreat where all of the new members in the group and the students on the executive board who are returning members that sort of assist us. We have lectures and discussion activities, simulations with staff members from MIT Medical and Community Wellness, and we review a lot of content over the course of that training retreat and talking about things like sleep and sexual health, alcohol and other drugs. We have a presentation on basic common health concerns, and we also talk about what services are available at the medical department. Really, one of the big goals for that training retreat is to get people feeling more comfortable in those sort of one-on-one interactions with others and also knowing how to ask for help, knowing how to set boundaries for themselves. They’re students first, that’s why they’re here. It’s great that they’re volunteering with us, but they have other priorities. So, they want to help each other out, they want to do a good job and we really appreciate that, but their academic success is most important. So, we just want them to feel comfortable knowing what’s available, knowing what they can offer, and knowing what the people who actually get a salary should be doing.

Melanie: And how are MedLinks unique as compared to other support services on campus?

Baker: Well, I think one of the nice things about MedLinks is that here on MIT’s campus -- at other schools I’ve worked at there are people that live in the dormitories that are called Ras, usually other undergraduate students. Here at MIT, that role is filled by graduate students, some of whom have partners and children. They’re a great resource for people to go to and may have experience and they’ve seen things and done things here at MIT. But I think MedLinks is great is because the volunteers are students like you, basically. They live in the same residence as you. They understand the culture of where you live, they take the same classes, they eat in the same places, all that kind of stuff. So, I think it just is nice that it’s someone who has that sort of similarity to you that you can go to to talk to about things. I can stand out at the student center and talk about some health topics for hours and hours, and it sounds different coming from me than it does coming from someone that is similar to the student, even if it’s the same exact message. So, we’re really lucky that we have these students who are sort of willing to take on this position and share the information with their fellow students.

Melanie: And how do MedLinks help the students access the services at MIT Medical?

Baker: Well, I think one of the things we try to do is train them in terms of what things we have to offer at the campus health center, whether it’s making an appointment or learning how to pick a primary care provider or discussing myths about things like health insurance. If you can’t come to the medical department because you have XYZ thing, the MedLinks, they’re sort of knowledgeable, maybe a little bit more knowledgeable about MIT Medical than the average student, so they can sort of troubleshoot with them about them coming to the building, do they need to come to the building for something, or is it something that maybe they can take care of themselves. We have a number of different sort of connecting points within the medical department, and MedLinks know about those and can sort of help you figure out which one is best for you.

Melanie: And can MedLinks also help students with things they might be embarrassed to ask other people, like if they need safe sex supplies, they need to visit the Community Wellness at MIT Medical? Can you help direct them to those things and get these things that they need so that they’re not so embarrassed to ask?

Baker: Absolutely. Yup. MedLinks are one of the different groups on campus that have the safer sex supplies available from Community Wellness and may sometimes leave them right on their door or in the bathroom or in a common place. Again, MedLinks are not the only people that do that, but they are one group that can. And I think that sometimes people at MIT can be challenged in terms of asking for help. They want to kind of do it themselves and they don’t want to put themselves out there as someone who is confused or doesn’t know the right answer, that kind of thing, and so, it can be nice to sort of do that with a fellow student first before -- you know, not that anyone at Medical is going to judge them for not knowing what the right answer is, but at the very least, they have that opportunity to connect with someone first.

Melanie: Stress is a big problem on campus today, Greg, and I think having a MedLinks connection available would help. Can you help in times of stress, maybe talk them through tough homework or an anxious week or something along those lines?

Baker: Yeah. That’s definitely one of the reasons that people go to the MedLinks in their dorms or in their fraternities, their sororities. I think that a lot of the time, people think about MedLinks as only just giving out medicine and things. But we do talk in the MedLinks training about stress management, about relaxation techniques, about what’s available online from Community Wellness. We’ve had yoga sessions open to campus. We’ve given lectures about how to give massage that were open to the campus. So there’s a sort of different things that we’ve done both in residence and for the community that sort of gets through the idea of making sure that stress is not overwhelming you and being able to take care of it appropriately.

Melanie: And if someone visits someone from MedLinks, is this confidential, anything that they tell you?

Baker: Not everything is confidential. Generally speaking, the MedLinks are not reporting anything by name. We do ask the MedLinks to log any interactions they’ve had in general in terms of either what supplies they’re giving out or the sort of theme of what someone came to them for, but we don’t ask for a name from anyone. The only time that we would ever do that is if someone came to us with a mental health concern if they were saying that there was some sort of imminent harm to themselves or to someone else. At that point, we would probably—and in fact, definitely—ask for the name of that person because we want to make sure that that person is being reached out to. But generally beyond an emergency situation, the MedLinks would know who it was because they know them from around the building or whatever. But that information doesn’t go much wider than that.

Melanie: In just the last couple of minutes, Greg, tell someone how to they can learn more about MedLink and why they should involve themselves in MedLink program at MIT Medical.

Baker: Sure thing. We have a lot of great information on our website, which is medlinks.mit.edu and some of the things that you can do there is that you can find your local MedLink based on where you live. There’s a way to select either you dorm or your fraternity or sorority or independent living group, and you can see who’s there. You can also see a list of the supplies that they have in their supply kit, and we have a calendar of upcoming events that you can see what’s happening, whether it’s our continuing education sessions or our community events. And we also recommend people, if they’re living on campus, then they know that there’s a MedLink nearby, just go say hi and introduce yourself. The members have signs on their doors that say that they’re MedLinks and what MedLinks do and the link to the website, all that kind of stuff, and I think they would all be glad to tell someone more about the group from what their experience is. In terms of getting involved, I think it’s a great opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way to your residential community. The motto of MedLinks is “students promoting health at MIT,” and that’s something that have been doing on MIT’s campus for over 20 years, and we are lucky that we have a pretty sizeable group. We have about 165 members this semester, and we try to spread them out as best we can throughout the residential communities. It’s sort of a tangible way that you can be yourself ensuring and helping people make the most of their time at MIT.

Melanie: Thank you so much, Greg Baker. You’re listening to Conversations with MIT Medical. For more information, you can go to medweb.mit.edu. That’s medweb.mit.edu. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks for listening.