Jim O’Connell MD, who has treated Boston’s homeless for 30 years, will visit the IU School of Medicine-South Bend for an intimate discussion from 3:40 to 5 pm on Wednesday, Nov. 30. All students, faculty and staff of the medical school and nearby institutions are welcome to join this encounter.
Dr. O’Connell began full-time clinical work with homeless individuals in 1985 as the founding physician of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which now serves over 12,000 homeless persons each year in two hospital-based clinics (Boston Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital) and in more than 60 shelters and outreach sites in Boston. He is the 2012 recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism
With his colleagues, Dr. O’Connell established the nation’s first medical respite program for homeless persons, with 25 beds nested within the Lemuel Shattuck Shelter. This innovative program now provides acute and sub-acute, pre- and post-operative, and palliative and end-of-life care in BHCHP’s 104-bed Barbara McInnis House.
His work has been profiled by the alumni magazines of his alma maters, Notre Dame (undergraduate) and Harvard (Medical School)
Originally published at preprofessional.nd.edu.