Profile: Michael McCawley

Michael McCawley may seem like a Jack of all trades to many, but one aspect of his life has always remained the same: a desire to help others. Though the salt-and-pepper haired, jolly 60-something has spent the past 30 years as a professor at West Virginia University in the Department of Community Medicine teaching a variety of subjects from air pollution to occupational health, he got his start at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. There, he received a bachelor’s degree in zoology. He then acquired a master’s degree in environmental engineering from WVU, and later a doctorate in environmental health from New York University.
Now, McCawley currently works as a faculty organizer for MUSHROOM: The Multidisciplinary UnSheltered Homeless Relief Outreach Of Morgantown. The program is comprised of WVU faculty and students from medical and social work backgrounds who reach out to the local homeless population by offering them basic needs and medical care.
Though the group dedicates every other Thursday to making “street rounds” to provide the homeless with items such as food, water, clothing, toothbrushes and blankets, McCawley believes one of the most important things MUSHROOM offers the homeless is something as simple as acknowledgement.
“Many students try not to make eye contact with a person who looks homeless because they’re afraid of being panhandled. I’d like to ask everyone in the community not to do that. A smile or a nod is sufficient. Don’t pretend the homeless aren’t there. It’s demeaning - they don’t want to be ignored,” McCawley said.
The MUSHROOM group is dedicated to providing on-the-spot medical care the homeless community and to creating awareness of the homelessness epidemic on the WVU campus and throughout the Morgantown community. “The first thing for the students to understand is that the homeless are just people. They’re not saints. They’re not monsters. They don’t want to be hassled. Awareness is important because you may see opportunities to help. There’s no one size fits all solution to homelessness or poverty or mental health. Many eyes looking at the problem, though, may result in many solutions,” McCawley said.
McCawley believes in the power of the next generation and the ability of his students to make a difference. According to McCawley, a large part of the Morgantown homeless problem can be blamed on the lack of areas that accept Housing and Urban Development (HUD) vouchers. Because Morgantown is a seller’s market when it comes to housing due to the students in need of off-campus housing, landlords are more resistant to accept such government funded programs.
“Students should do what they came here to do: study. Become the educated voters who can influence the opinions of lawmakers. This is not an easy issue. It is an issue that needs to remain the focus of the citizens of this country of and countries around the world,” McCawley said.
McCawley also believes the local homelessness issue could be decreased and prevented through efficient and good institutional care, since a large majority of homeless people suffer from some sort of mental illness. “There’s not an easy answer to this conundrum. Many of the homeless also have problems associated with mental disorders. In decades past, people with mental disorders would have been placed into institutional care for the duration of their lives. A very large percentage of the people we see on the street could benefit from this care. Whether being in an institution is better than being on the street may remain a debatable question, but the Supreme Court decided in favor of releasing people from institutions if they were not a danger to themselves or others,” McCawley said.
Project MUSHROOM has grown from four hundred thirty-four patient encounters per year in 2006 to eight hundred seventy-two in 2010 and has spent six thousand dollars in the past year providing supplies to the homeless, while the value of the medical care provided based on the going rates of professionals was equivalent to thirty thousand dollars. Though, to McCawley, these are merely numbers and statistics. “It’s hard to say what the worth of the student participation may be, but to steal a line from a popular commercial, I’d say…priceless,” McCawley laughed.
MUSHROOM has recently been performing flu vaccinations and tuberculosis testing in areas such as the Bartlett House, a local homeless shelter. With help from the Monongalia County Commission have helped assist the group in providing opportunities to do so, as well as the County Commission and the Mayor of Morgantown. “Making sure that people are immunized or at least checked periodically can help alleviate some of these problems. When people work together, it benefits everyone. I think that helping to keep the government informed is crucial in helping them make the right decisions when the time comes,” McCawley said.
The MUSHROOM group provides regular, although rudimentary, care to the homeless on a scheduled basis and works towards fighting disease, discovering problems early, and understanding what’s required for follow-up care that may reduce the number of times a homeless patient has to be admitted to a hospital for the same ailment. McCawley hopes this dedication and routine can create a sense of stability for the homeless community, something he claims can have many positive effects. “It’s easy for a person who is out on the street or sheltering in a homeless shelter to lose hope. MUSHROOM provides a glimmer of hope. It is a constant in lives that have no constancy,” McCawley said.