A program that provides internships to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities has been expanding into the metroplex.

Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth recently partnered with the Fort Worth Independent School District to give eight students nine months of hands-on experience in various fields ranging from environmental services to the orthopedic and trauma unit.

The internship program is part of an international initiative called Project SEARCH, created in Ohio in 1996. The program has been running at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas in partnership with Richardson ISD since 2018 and at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano since 2021.

At Texas Health in Fort Worth, the interns are assisted in their rotations on-site by Arden Winter and Crystal Vargas, a teacher and teacher’s aide in special education at the district, respectively. They also strive to help the students show off their newly acquired work skills in résumés and interviews to increase their job prospects.

“When we’re in the classroom, we explain the importance of a résumé and what it can do for each of them. A lot of them don’t understand what it is, so we have to start at the very basics and build upon that,” said Winter.

Winter added that the program not only gives disabled students a step up in finding gainful employment but also helps them grow into adults.

“A lot of the interns have never really been treated like adults. I don’t know that a lot of them have ever really felt heard,” she said. “Having them be the center stage of their experience, I think has done a lot to help the way they interact with their peers, even just in this small amount of time, and teaches them how to actively listen to one another.”

For some participants, the internship can also help open doors to a career at the hospital.

Martin Vasquez, a 19-year-old intern for the materials management department, hopes to continue part-time while attending college next fall.

“I get to deliver orders, and it’s very cool,” he said of his experience. “I’ve pretty much learned my way around the hospital.”

The demand for healthcare workers is projected to rise in the coming years, according to the Department of Labor. Roughly 2 million new jobs are expected to be created by 2031 in response to an aging population and a rise in the prevalence of chronic diseases. Six in 10 Americans currently have at least one chronic disease, which includes heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.

As extensively covered in The Dallas Express, obesity is a raging public health problem, with the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggesting that 22 states — Texas included — have reached an adult obesity rate of 35% or above.

Obesity increases the risk of an array of adverse health outcomes and costs the U.S. healthcare system approximately $147 billion a year.