As a young man, the doctor made a promise. He would do this kind of work for one year. It was, he believed, all anyone could stand.
Practicing medicine on the street is too taxing. It pushes its practitioners to the edge of their physical and emotional limits. One year, he told himself, and then it’s time for oncology.
In the summer of 1985, two days after finishing his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. James J. O’Connell entered the Nurses’ Clinic at Pine Street Inn for his first day of work. As he tells the story in his new book, Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor, his swagger drew a “stern grimace” from Barbara McInnis and the other nurses.
You can’t keep a good cyclist down. After being forced to the sidelines last year, Medford resident Stacy Kirkpatrick made a much-anticipated return to the road for the 35th annual Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, Aug. 1-2.
It’s a long way from his practice at Massachusetts General Hospital, where Gonzalez sees more well-heeled patients. The homeless sometimes can’t, sometimes won’t get to mainstream hospitals, so for nearly two decades, Gonzalez, 76, has taken his black bag to them at the Barbara McInnis House on Albany Street, where Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) runs a treatment center.
Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) recently honored Howard K. Koh, MD, professor of the practice of public health leadership and director of the Leading Change Stuio at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health with it's Dr. Jim O'Connell Award.
JP resident Mala Rafik joins with Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program CEO Barry Bock and Needham resident Doug Brooks at the BHCHP’s “Medicine that Matters” fundraising gala at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel May 6.
Construction of a $14 million affordable housing and medical care facility for homeless people is expected to be completed late this year in Jamaica Plain and reach full occupancy early next year.
Dr. Howard K. Koh of Andover, professor of the practice of public health leadership and director of the Leading Change Studio at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is being honored by the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program for his work with the homeless.
In this Kind World story, Cheryl Kane, a nurse with the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, recalls an unforeseen moment with Max that continues to inform her nursing practice, years later.
A few weeks after a 600-person army of volunteers scoured Santa Barbara County to tally the homeless population and assess their needs, a lecture hall packed with UCSB students heard from two out-of-town doctors about the importance of “street medicine” in providing care to the indigent.
