On any given night in Chicago, there are more than 5000 people living in a state of homelessness, [1] and some estimates place this number as high as 90,000. [2] And yet, to so many of us, this world of the homeless remains invisible. We avert our eyes and our attention because we’re uncomfortable.
At CSM, we realized that much of our discomfort stems from our seeing ourselves and our families in the people we’ve met on the streets. We know, with eighty percent of Americans now living paycheck to paycheck, that four out of five of us are one accident, one illness, one family emergency away from ending up in those tents. We’ve turned this discomfort into motivation.
We are motivated to partner with the incredible organizations in Chicago who have been working in the arenas of homelessness, healthcare, and harm reduction for years, some for decades. We are motivated to share experiences with the medical community, to help reverse the bidirectional stigma and inefficiencies in delivery that result in incredibly expensive, suboptimal care for the homeless and lead to a 32 year disparity in life expectancy. And most of all, we are motivated to meet more people in Chicago, to grow with them, and to create a healthier city.
In healthcare, we take an oath to do no harm. And yet, we mandate that all patients engage with medicine within the traditional healthcare environment. We refuse to recognize that to some, especially marginalized persons - the homeless community, the LGBTQ community, the immigrant community, people who use drugs - the sterile white clinic and the noisy, confining hospital is harmful. To put our patients first, to treat people not pathology, we must transform our understanding of healthcare. We must work together, learn together, and grow together.
The more we see, the more we are motivated. Chicago Street Medicine is a young organization, but we have great momentum, thanks to our personnel and our patients. We do whatever it takes to ensure the right of all in Chicago to live their healthiest lives, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or housing status.
We hope you will join us.
At CSM, we realized that much of our discomfort stems from our seeing ourselves and our families in the people we’ve met on the streets. We know, with eighty percent of Americans now living paycheck to paycheck, that four out of five of us are one accident, one illness, one family emergency away from ending up in those tents. We’ve turned this discomfort into motivation.
We are motivated to partner with the incredible organizations in Chicago who have been working in the arenas of homelessness, healthcare, and harm reduction for years, some for decades. We are motivated to share experiences with the medical community, to help reverse the bidirectional stigma and inefficiencies in delivery that result in incredibly expensive, suboptimal care for the homeless and lead to a 32 year disparity in life expectancy. And most of all, we are motivated to meet more people in Chicago, to grow with them, and to create a healthier city.
In healthcare, we take an oath to do no harm. And yet, we mandate that all patients engage with medicine within the traditional healthcare environment. We refuse to recognize that to some, especially marginalized persons - the homeless community, the LGBTQ community, the immigrant community, people who use drugs - the sterile white clinic and the noisy, confining hospital is harmful. To put our patients first, to treat people not pathology, we must transform our understanding of healthcare. We must work together, learn together, and grow together.
The more we see, the more we are motivated. Chicago Street Medicine is a young organization, but we have great momentum, thanks to our personnel and our patients. We do whatever it takes to ensure the right of all in Chicago to live their healthiest lives, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or housing status.
We hope you will join us.
