Built for Need

The new home of the College of Health and Human Services officially opened on September 16 with a celebratory ribbon-cutting ceremony. The result? Southern has the capacity to prepare significantly more graduates to meet workforce needs in the healthcare industry — while providing technologically advanced education to students and expanded services to the community.

THE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES has more than 16,000 living alumni, including dedicated nurses, public health directors, speech pathologists, social workers, respiratory therapists, physical education teachers, and other front-line heroes — many providing invaluable services during these challenging times. And, clearly, there are challenges: COVID-19 variants, the monkeypox virus declared a public health emergency, racial and economic healthcare inequities, a growing demand for mental health services, the opioid epidemic, and far too few healthcare and human services professionals to meet society’s needs in many sectors, including nursing, school counseling, marriage and family therapy, and more.

The American Hospital Association forecasts a shortage of up to 3.2 million healthcare workers by 2026. Amid this climate, many Southern students see opportunity and a call to serve. There are 2,498 students enrolled in the College of Health and Human Services, including 623 graduate students. Many are preparing for their careers in a new 94,750-square-foot building located on Fitch Street. There are 26 disciplines (listed below) housed within the college’s departments, centers, clinics, and institutes. Several are remaining in their previous locations by design: the Department of Social Work in the historic Lang House and Orlando House, and the Marriage and Family Therapy Program in Davis Hall, which will accommodate an expanded clinic. Likewise, the physical education and school health education programs will stay in Irma M. Pelz Gymnasium, adjacent to the new CHHS building.

Overall, the new facility will unite academic disciplines previously housed in eight buildings throughout campus. The configuration encourages interdisciplinary collaboration and reflects the real world where health and human services professionals work together to provide the best of care. Here are some of the building’s highlights.

The ATHLETIC TRAINING TEACHING LAB, located on the terrace level, is equipped with 10 examination tables that convert into desks, a therapeutic whirlpool bath, and other tools of the field. It’s also home to the Anatomage Table — a computerized, 3D system for teaching anatomy and physiology as well as conducting virtual dissections.

The INSTITUTE FOR ADAPTED SPORT AND INCLUSIVE RECREATION, among the first organization of its kind in Connecticut, provides opportunities for students enrolled in the therapeutic recreation programs to gain experience assisting individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities. The institute has a dedicated home in the new building — including a gaming room designed to support children on the autism spectrum.

The DEMONSTRATION CULINARY CLASSROOM — which uses screening technology to display the cooktop to audiences — is an interdisciplinary space for use by numerous CHHS programs. Among the subjects potentially taught? Student nutrition and food safety, sport nutrition, and offerings from Southern’s degree program in tourism, hospitality, and event management. Other possibilities include healthy cooking demonstrations from the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE), a partnership between Southern and Yale University committed to improving the health of residents of New Haven’s lowest-income neighborhoods. The space converts to a classroom.

The CENTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS DISORDERS, TEACHING, AND RESEARCH LABS serves about 150 clients (children and adults) weekly, offering an array of speech, language, and hearing services to evaluate and address everything from developmental language disorders to augmentative/alternative communication. “It’s a very special place where we train the next generation of speech-language pathologists,” says Sandra Bulmer, dean of the CHHS. Additional services made possible by the new building include speech therapy for those with English as a second language and swallowing evaluations.

The AUDIOLOGY CLINIC AND RESEARCH LAB includes three sound booths and a large clinic area for assessments, research, and services, including hearing aid prescriptions and cochlear implant mapping. Mapping, which is conducted by a specially trained audiologist, involves programming the implant so users can hear comfortably. Each “map” is individual to its user and changes over time.

Within the HUMAN PERFORMANCE FACILITY there are laboratories focused on biomechanics, exercise behavior and metabolism, cardiovascular physiology, human performance, and exercise testing and prescriptive teaching. Hands-on equipment includes a DEXA machine for assessing bone density and a Bod Pod machine that uses air displacement to measure body-fat composition. (Previously, clients were required to sit on a scale submerged in a tank of water.) A lab focused on human performance houses a lactate analyzer and a Biodex unit used for muscle testing and rehabilitation. The CT RUNNING INJURY CLINIC (above), housed on the first floor within the Biomechanics Laboratory, provides 3D-computerized gait analysis to improve performance and prevent injury. More than 200 runners from throughout New England have received services through the center.

The INTERPROFESSIONAL HEALTHCARE SIMULATION CENTER includes six simulated hospital rooms, four standardized patient rooms, a home simulation suite, and classrooms. On the simulated hospital floor, high-tech medical manikins, including pediatric and geriatric models and one that “gives birth,” are programmed to present various medical conditions to educate students in a lowpressure environment. Adjacent control rooms have one-way glass; sessions can be recorded for review and further learning. Combined with clinical placements, the simulation center provides the best of all worlds. “Research shows that simulation education is very effective. You might be in your clinical for 100 hours and not experience all the scenarios seen in 10 hours of planned simulations,” Bulmer says. Furthering education, there are also standardized examination rooms with a green room for use by actors hired from the community to portray patients.

The INTERPROFESSIONAL HEALTHCARE SIMULATION CENTER

The INTERPROFESSIONAL HEALTHCARE SIMULATION CENTER

The INTERPROFESSIONAL HEALTHCARE SIMULATION CENTER

Part of the Interprofessional Healthcare Simulation Center, the HOME SIMULATION SUITE teaches health and human services majors to provide care in a home setting — often while working in interdisciplinary teams. The fully functioning studio apartment has a wheelchair-accessible bathroom, kitchen, and more. Plus, there’s an adjoining observation room.

The INTERPROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION CENTER forwards the college’s long-held commitment to interdisciplinary learning, with shared meeting and office space, and a central kitchen/breakroom for use by more than 100 faculty and staff who are housed in the building.

There are four large NURSING CLASSROOM/TEACHING LABS, each equipped with six hospital beds with headwall systems (they provide electricity and medical gas in patients’ rooms while effectively managing medical cords and tubing) and six examination tables. Medium-fidelity manikins are used to practice skills from inserting IVs to monitoring electrocardiograms.

THE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES PROVIDES BACHELOR’S, MASTER’S, AND/OR DOCTORAL DEGREES IN THE FOLLOWING:

Athletic Training; Child Life Specialist; Clinical Exercise Physiology; Communication Disorders; Exercise and Sport Science; Health Promotion; Health Science; Healthcare and Clinical Research; Healthcare Studies; Human Performance; Marriage and Family Therapy; Nursing; Physical Activity and Chronic Disease; Physical Education; Public Health; Public Health Management and Leadership; Recreation Administration; Respiratory Therapy; School Health Education; Social Work; Speech Language Pathology; Sport and Entertainment Management; Sport Psychology; Therapeutic Recreation; Tourism, Hospitality, and Event Management; Youth Development and Leadership