As New York City continues to recover from the catastrophic devastation of Hurricane Sandy, we would like to inform you about the efforts Touro College is making to help the community at large as well as our own students and faculty. Several of our graduate schools are offering significant support services and we are extremely proud of the outreach by some of our students and faculty who took it upon themselves to volunteer their time, their hard work and, in some cases, risking their safety in an effort to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Some examples are:
Community
The Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center opened a center to provide referrals, assistance and legal advice for residents and small businesses affected by the hurricane. The Touro Law Center – Hurricane Emergency Assistance and Referral Team (TLC-HEART) is staffed by volunteer lawyers and law students. The center provides assistance in assessing eligibility and completing application forms for the wide range of emergency assistance available to storm victims, such as food stamps, government loans and grants; referrals for free legal consultation and advice on storm-related legal issues; and assistance to members of the entire Touro community, including students and staff members, who are in need
New York Medical College (NYMC) is working with the Westchester County Health Department and other agencies and organizations to provide assistance and relief for those affected by Hurricane Sandy. Among its efforts, NYMC agreed to provide vaccinations of victims and responders to prevent the occurrence of disease arising from puncture wounds sustained in unsanitary environments; mental health services for victims; volunteers at hospitals at or nearing capacity; continued residency training at NYMC-affiliated hospitals for some New York University School of Medicine house staff who were temporarily displaced from their usual clinical sites; and the use of land by authorities for temporary housing trailers for individuals and families displaced by the storm
Matthew Stamm, a Physician’s Assistant (PA- 2015)) student at the Touro School of Health Sciences, organized approximately 20 classmates and friends to volunteer in Long Beach. They cleaned damaged houses and brought supplies directly to victims at two different collection sites in the area. The entire effort was organized through Facebook
PA student Chaim Adler (2015) volunteered for night patrol on the Lower East Side, supplying elderly residents with water and assisting them in other ways in coping with daily routines impacted by the storm
Arkadiy Malakov and Nataliya Volkov, Russian-speaking students from the Touro College of Pharmacy, are completing rotations at the Parker Jewish Institute in New Hyde Park, where patients from four skilled-nursing facilities in Long Beach and the Rockaways were transferred due to hurricane evacuations. With the benefit of their language skills, students assisted the medical, nursing and social work staff to obtain medical and social histories, dietary and other requirements to process their admission information. They are also speaking to patients to assist in their psychosocial adjustment to their new surroundings
Jill Horbacewicz, director of the department of physical therapy and chair of the doctor of physical therapy program at the School of Health Sciences, took part in the relief effort in Moonachie, New Jersey by cleaning out the Moonachie Civic and Senior Center
Joslyn F. Joseph, a student at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine who has volunteered as an EMT and rescue technician with the Wayne Township Memorial First Aid Squad since she was 16, was designated as essential medical personnel for preparatory, rescue and recovery operations. Joslyn worked several 12-hour shifts and logged more than 100 hours over the week Sandy hit, the first of which she spent at the Hoboken University Medical Center assisting in the mandatory evacuation of the entire hospital. During the week, her squad rescued several people trapped in cars due to the storm; extricated a fire chief and police officer from their vehicles using the Jaws of Life after they had been trapped and injured by a fallen tree and power lines, saving the officer’s life in the process; assisting in the rescue efforts in the Moonachie/Little Ferry area with rescue boats and five-ton vehicle after a levee broke and flooded out both areas, leaving thousands homeless and several people stranded and missing; assisted in erecting and operating a mobile-field hospital that became a fully functional Emergency Room and triage center within 24 hours; and helped evacuate a shelter in Toms River
The following is a list of some of the services being offered by Touro College to its students, faculty and staff:
Staff, Students
The Graduate Schools of Social Work and Psychology partnered to offer a brief number of sessions to staff and students currently experiencing coping difficulties who would like to talk with professionals. Clinical staff provided pro-bono, a brief number of counseling sessions, followed by a referral, if necessary
Touro announced a special limited-loan program to assist members of the Touro College community who are victims of Hurricane Sandy. Employees in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut who have been affected by the hurricane may be eligible for an interest-free loan
Financial aid administrators are reviewing the situations of students affected by Sandy to determine if they are eligible for additional assistance or to re-apply for additional student loans from the Department of Education
Touro has created the Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund to directly benefit Touro staff, faculty and students who were victims of the storm
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