What's more important than your health? Precious little, really, because if you don't have it, nothing else can be enjoyed fully. Sometimes we're lucky and we get through each year with maybe nothing more than bumps or bruises or perhaps some stitches in an emergency. But what about those who suffer chronic and ongoing health issues and can't afford healthcare for themselves? Add to that the harsh conditions of being homeless, and "health care" can quickly slide off the priority list completely.
Enter Dr. Jim, Withers, a Pittsburgh physician and his amazing Operation Safety Net team. These medical heroes have been treating homeless citizens and those in need for the last 23 years, completely free of charge, and in the spaces they feel comfortable - their own spaces. Dr. Withers found that despite their best efforts, homeless citizens wouldn't come into the clinic, and so the clinic went to them. Now Dr. Withers and a small team of professional healthcare and social workers offer private, respectful, confidential care to those who need it most, often traveling to his city's roughest neighbourhoods - sometimes quite literally searching under bridges and train trestles for those requiring medical care.
Here he can be found delivering medication to those who would otherwise go without - blood pressure pills, chronic pain management, insulin, and others.
Operation Safety Net does all they can to provide healthcare and housing options to those who seek it, and they've even built a Remembrance Wall to honour those they've known, cared for, and lost. Dr. Withers says, "The take home message is we matter as human beings. People need to hear that, and people need to feel that."
The decency and humanity this team impart helps not only those receiving care directly - but because, as Dr. Withers says, we are in this together - the ripple effect of selflessness extends to us all.
Image Source: CNN
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