Last month, Missouri State University officially cut the ribbon on the Collaborative Care Clinic, a renovated space that brings together multiple clinical services in a modern, centralized facility designed to enhance student learning.

This is the second in a special two-part series on the clinic. I’m once again talking with clinic directors: Lauren Hembree, who is director of Counseling Services and Lauren Jones, who is director of Speech-Language-Hearing Services.

The clinic houses counseling, audiology, psychology and speech-language pathology.

We previously spoke about the clinic’s impact on southwest Missouri and helping address health care access. This week, we’re talking about the people who make it possible: graduate students.

“One thing that all of the service areas in the clinic have in common is that our services are provided by graduate students who are in their respective training programs for their discipline,” said Jones. “So, we have licensed and certified practitioners supervising all of the services, but it is a practicum site for the students in the graduate programs.”

The clinic is not just unique for patients, it’s unique for the students who learn there, too. While it’s typical to have an educational clinic setting for speech-language-pathology and Audiology students, Hembree says it’s something special for the counselors in training there.

“They’re in a session room with a real client for the first time, and they know my supervisor, who I’ve had classes with, I’ve talked with multiple times, they’re just right down the hall,” she said. “They have my back. They can come and help me if I need it. And that’s pretty rare, and it’s pretty special.”

The clinic is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays and 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays.

Read the full transcript