MLA ’25 Service Project: Street Medicine at Pitt
Submitted by: Dana Thimons
The Medical Library Association Local Assistance Committee (LAC) 2025 service project is supporting Street Medicine at Pitt, a student-run interdisciplinary organization that strives to bring healthcare and social support to the rough-sleeping and unhoused community in Pittsburgh.
Rooted in Pittsburgh
In the early 1990s, Dr. Jim Withers, an internal medicine physician at Pittsburgh Mercy, began reaching out and making medical visits to Pittsburgh’s unhoused community. He observed the internal and external barriers faced by people experiencing homelessness. Dr. Withers was assisted by a formerly unhoused individual who served as a guide and liaison. The concept of “street medicine” was born, and Operation Safety Net became an official Pittsburgh Mercy outreach program in 1993.
Dr. Withers met with others like him who were working to bring medical care directly to people living on the streets in the U.S. and around the world. The International Street Medicine Symposium (ISMS) was founded in Pittsburgh in 2005, and the Street Medicine Institute (SMI) was founded and incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2009. SMI has helped foster or improve street medicine programs in 27 countries across six continents.
Street Medicine at Pitt is part of the Street Medicine Institute Student Coalition, a group focused on bringing together street medicine programs run by students worldwide.
Meeting People Where They Are
The Street Medicine philosophy centers on meeting people where they are, both physically and emotionally, and building trust through consistent presence and compassion.
“Asking people to physically make it to an office appointment can be prohibitive,” said Dr. Anna Marie White, Medical Director of Street Medicine at Pitt.
“We go to where people are and meet their needs.”
A team from Street Medicine at Pitt rounds every Wednesday from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m., providing outreach and medical care to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness around Oakland and greater Pittsburgh. The team distributes food and other supplies, such as umbrellas, mosquito repellant, and sunscreen in the summer or socks, hats, and hand warmers in the winter.
Street Medicine at Pitt is comprised of students and licensed clinicians from 31 areas of practice, including occupational therapy, medicine, public health, dentistry, and nursing.
Learn More
Join us on Wednesday, April 30, at 2:00 p.m. for a panel discussion with members of Street Medicine at Pitt.
How to Help
- Monetary donations can be made by check payable to Street Medicine at Pitt or online.
- The LAC will be collecting donations and supplies at the hospitality booth. Items needed include socks, hygiene products, and non-perishable snacks. Here is a link to Street Medicine at Pitt’s Amazon wish list.
Recommended Reading
- Rough Sleepers: Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People by Tracy Kidder
- American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics by Kevin Hazzard