As Terry Jones Jr. participated in UNLV's Poverty Simulation over a recent weekend, he reflected on being raised by a single mother who had to navigate social services to get them the benefits they needed.

“The biggest takeaway for me was time — time is of the essence,” said Jones, a master's of public health student studying social and behavioral health. The exercise demonstrated how factors like waiting in line to get social services might affect a patient’s ability to care for their health."

The Poverty Simulation is held twice a year and brings together UNLV students from the School of Public Health, the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, and the School of Dental Medicine to simulate a month in the life of low-income families. 

Students gathered at the Paul McDermott Physical Education Complex to simulate several real-world exercises, including going to work, getting childcare, paying off loans, and getting evicted. 

Over 300,000 people in Clark County live in poverty — people who are likely to one day be patients of these future health care providers, noted Minnie Wood, a senior lecturer in the School of Nursing. But the simulation isn’t meant to be a game and is instead intended to engender empathy and understanding about the barriers to accessing healthcare that these families face.

Jones could be seen carrying his toy child inside the front of his jacket throughout the simulation, roleplaying a father with his newborn in a baby carrier. The experience forced him to confront the experiences his own mother might have faced.

“While participating in the Social Security line, not only did I feel emotionally triggered about how long it took if I were to be a single mom, but it made me directly think about what my mom was going through at 17, 18 years old trying to get all of our benefits for us so that we could actually have food in our refrigerator as I was growing up.”

Following the simulation, students from the different health disciplines shared with one another what they took away from the experience. Many reflected somberly on how poorly they were treated throughout the simulation: by their employer, by payday loan clerks, and by their mortgage brokers.

Sandeep Koneru, a master’s student studying healthcare facility administration, said the experience taught him to keep an open mind and not judge people for their circumstances.

“That’s what you get out of studying healthcare,” Koneru said. “You know that you need to educate people to maintain their health.”

The interdisciplinary nature of the exercise reflects UNLV’s efforts to bring its healthcare institutions together to serve the community with its Academic Health Center. The model will identify gaps in healthcare in Southern Nevada and bring its health sciences divisions together to address them. 

For Jones, who also works as a transitional housing coordinator with chronically homeless veterans for U.S. VETS, the simulation also reinforced the lessons he sees in the community he works with.

"It gave me a better understanding about the plight that they are currently on and what they were experiencing,” he said. “...it gives me the opportunity to be more intentional about the resources that we provide.”