{"id":5098,"date":"2018-01-23T09:05:05","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T17:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsincerity.us\/?p=5098"},"modified":"2023-05-22T05:00:51","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T05:00:51","slug":"street-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/street-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Doctor Bringing Health Care to the Streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

What began as a small endeavor 1992 has blossomed into a worldwide movement that is reshaping how some folks access medical care. With a formerly homeless friend, Dr. Jim Withers packed his backpack full of medical supplies and took to the streets.<\/p>\n

Now, through Operation Safety Net<\/a>\u2014the non-profit he founded\u2014Withers and small groups of medical students travel through the city five nights a week to give medical assistance to homeless folks. ‘Street medicine’ is a term Dr. Withers coined himself with the philosophy that homeless folks are unlikely to seek out medical treatment when they’re sick, so we should bring treatment to them. Some treatments are minor fixes, others have led to hospitalization.<\/p>\n

“Besides just the good that it does and the money that it saves, having street medicine in every community transforms us. We begin to see that we’re all in this together.”<\/p>\n

Since starting out in the early 1990s, Withers estimates his organization has treated more than 1200 folks. That’s not counting the 85 organizations around the world who’ve started initiatives mirroring Operation Safety Net.<\/p>\n

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