The Exchange

Monday nights and Tuesday mornings I work at the needle exchange run by the HIV prevention project in San Francisco, with medical staff provided by Tom Waddell Health Center. Since needle exchange was legalized in San Francisco, rates of HIV infection amongst intravenous drug users has dropped dramatically. 

While the needle exchange has proven to be an effective public health intervention, just as importantly, it has decriminalized the disease which is addiction. People may not agree with the use of illegal drugs, but every time I come to the exchange I witness the stranglehold of addiction.

One girl played for the under 18 U.S. women's national soccer team, after injuring her knee, which ended her career, her father shot her with speed and heroin for the first time (to help her with the pain)--she has been addicted ever since.  

Many of the stories you hear at needle exchange are this tragic, yet these are in many ways forgotten people--lacking medical, mental health and effective drug/addiction treatment services.  Many are to afraid to access these service because their behavior is criminalized; many can't find services that are right for them; many can't afford services. 

Best Soup in Town

Every Thursday, I assist doctors on a medical outreach van at a local soup kitchen in the Mission. It is here, where you find a sense of community on the streets--people from all walks of life interacting with one another.

People have many stories here.....

Discussions range from conspiracy theories to life on the street and how people got there. Some people are haunted by hallucinations and delusions, others are perfectly logical and articulate--no signs of mental illness. People come from all walks of life--salesman, carpenters, constructions workers--from all over the world--Dallas, Ireland, Mexico, San Francisco.

There is no stereotype that characterizes this place.

Tenderloin Health

I have spent the past 6 months working for Tom Waddell Health Center--a homeless health care provider in San Francisco's Tenderloin. What strikes me the most are the people I have worked with--their level of compassion and dedication--and their ability to meet people where they are at in their lives.

When I took this job, one of the most challenging things for me to understand was the idea that health, suffering, rehabilitation..etc. are all relative and fluid states of being. 

What we are doing at Tenderloin Health, one of Tom Waddell's community clinics that sees many of our sickest homeless patients, is alleviating suffering one day at a time; suffering that for many, if not all of our patients, has persisted for years, and will never be eliminated in any absolute sense.