By Christie O’Reilly, CNN.
Dr. Jim Withers founded Operation Safety Net, which has helped more than 10,000 homeless people.
For more than 20 years, he’s taken his medical practice to the streets of Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh (CNN)Dr. Jim Withers used to dress like a homeless person on purpose.
Two to three nights a week, he rubbed dirt in his hair and muddied up his jeans and shirt before walking the dark streets of Pittsburgh, searching for the very people he was trying to emulate.
Withers wanted to connect with those who had been excluded from his care.
“I was actually really shocked how ill people were on the street. It was like going to a third-world country,” he said. “Young, old, people with mental illness, runaway kids, women (who) fled domestic violence, veterans. And they all have their own story.”
Homelessness costs the medical system a lot of money. Individuals often end up in emergency rooms, and stay there longer, because their illnesses go untreated and can lead to complications.
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