- Hi everybody, here we are in Pittsburgh,
and I'm with Dr. Jim Withers, and this is truly an honor.
Last year thanks to the Because Foundation
I was introduced to Dr. Jim at the DC Central kitchen
with another hero Robert Egger.
Oh my gosh, kindred spirits. We hit if off.
I'll post that video along with this video.
For a year now, I've told Dr. Jim
that I've got to come to Pittsburgh
and help him tell the story.
And his story is street medicine.
He's out on the streets helping people,
where most medical professionals probably don't go.
Can you tell me about that?
- Yeah we started almost 20 years ago, Mike Sellers and I.
He had a homeless experience, and the two of us paired up,
and began going into abandoned buildings,
under bridges along the riverbanks here,
to directly look at the medical needs
and listen to the stories of the folks on the street.
It's gone on now, it's largely volunteer driven,
but we have an awesome core program here
that does the case management and housing.
- Can you tell my why it's so important?
Healthcare to homeless people ... I'm the general public,
I work as a teacher, a lawyer or whatever.
Why should I care about Healthcare for Homeless?
- I work with domestic violence and a number of issues
where people are really living in a different reality.
Unless we can learn how to go to their reality,
listen and honor who they are, we're lost.
The divisions will get greater and it doesn't help anyone.
I've always viewed the streets as an incredible classroom.
The homeless folks have been kind enough to be our teachers.
- Yeah.
- For the last almost 20 years.
By listening to them in solidarity, then working together
to try to access medical care,
I think you get an insight and a way of working
that I hope will inform our medical students,
nursing students, and also the system in general.
- I've worked at some with the medical truck
at the Los Angeles Dream Center
where we went out on Skid Row.
It's so important because whether it be health issues,
or mental health issues, or drugs and alcohol,
or just fear of the system, or criminal records,
or all the above, or just not ...
You know, I had a broken wrist
and I sat in the waiting room in Los Angeles for 24 hours
before anybody even talked to me.
Homeless people don't go and get the help that they need
and many of them are dying on the streets,
and when they do go and get help
that costs us money. The taxpayer.
Whether you like it or not,
you're paying for the homeless people out on the streets.
I think it's just so very important.
Do you have any personal stories of some of the people
or some of the medical needs that you help?
- I have seen so much.
- Well you've been doing this 20 years. That's amazing.
- We've seen people who've died out there,
people who were burned and stabbed
and all kinds of terrible things done to them
as victims of violence.
But also just the basic medical things
that are going untreated that lead to cancer,
and strokes and things. They don't know where to turn.
They don't actually believe anyone cares enough
to work with them on that.
So they've given up. Every instance is unique.
But I can think about transporting folks with broken arms
and all kinds of things like that.
We have incredible volunteers,
nurses and also staff that truly have the spirit
that you are my brother, you are my sister,
we're in this together and ultimately we're building
community which I think is the real goal,
in which everyone matters, everyone's included.
- We've talked about that.
The solution to ending homelessness is not just housing,
it's community, social interaction,
tangible sociable interaction is so important
to getting people dignity and self worth and medical care.
Let's say I'm a nursing student,
or a medical student in my community
and I'm watching this and I want to get involved.
How do I start this in my community,
how do I come and learn?
How can I get more information?
- We've just had our seventh
International Street Medicine Symposium last week,
and student involvement has always been key.
The movement is spreading across the US
and around the world, but we love students.
We have a waiting list of students here.
But if you want to connect with streetmedicine.org
or operationsafetynet.net those are two great ways.
There's also a film from the Because Foundation
called One Bridge to the Next, which followed us
for two weeks and I think it's pretty good.
- Oh yeah. You're rocking it man.
- We're together.
- So we're gonna go out on the streets tonight
and I just want to thank all you guys,
please support Dr. Jim and support street medicine
in your community.
It really is, it's so important that we,
like you said, join solidarity
with our brothers and sisters on the street.
- Thank you.