The Street Medicine Movement | Jim Withers | TEDxPittsburgh

If you want to help people heal, you have to go to where they are. That’s part of Dr. Jim Wither’s philosophy on medicine that led him beneath the bridges of Pittsburgh to help an extremely vulnerable population: the homeless. Dr. Jim’s take on what he calls Street Medicine involves taking the time to gain the trust of patients and to selflessly give the gift of healing. His work is being taught around the world and is helping the health, happiness, and sometimes, the poverty level, of this community, one patient at a time.

Dr. Jim Withers is an internal medicine physician who began providing medical care to Pittsburgh’s unsheltered homeless population in 1992. He is also the founder of Operation Safety Net, a street medicine program in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For the past 23 years, Dr. Withers has been working with the homeless population to provide free medical care by going from one bridge to the next to assist homeless individuals in need. As a 2014 Huffington Post article on Dr. Withers stated, “What started off as two people offering free medical treatment has since grown into a national network of medical students and volunteers who go out to treat the homeless four nights a week.” In fact, Dr. Wither’s street medicine is now practiced around the world through his nonprofit International Street Medicine Institute.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx