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Story highlights
- Dr. Jim Withers founded Operation Safety Net, which has helped more than 10,000 homeless people
- Nominations are open for 2016 CNN Heroes
- Watch "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" now on CNNgo
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."
Top 10 CNN Hero Dr. Jim Withers 01:51
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.
CNN Hero Dr. Jim Withers: Street medicine 03:08
For 23 years, Withers has been treating the homeless -- under bridges, in alleys and along riverbanks.
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"We realized that this was something that could be addressed. We could make 'house calls,' " he said. It's something that Withers' father, a rural doctor, often did.
Withers' one-man mission became a citywide program called Operation Safety Net. Since 1992, the group has reached more than 10,000 individuals and helped more than 1,200 of them transition into housing.
In addition to street rounds, the program has a mobile van, drop-in centers and a primary health clinic, all where the homeless can access medical care.
Today, Withers is also fostering a global "street medicine" movement. His nonprofit, the Street Medicine Institute, supports communities in starting programs of their own. Its network includes dozens of teams in the United States and around the world.
I recently talked with Withers about his work and his ultimate vision. Below is an edited version of our conversation:
CNN: How does it work, doing rounds in homeless camps?
Dr. Jim Withers: It can be a challenge to keep up with where the camps are. The homeless are often evicted. Their belongings are taken. And so they have to keep moving. And therefore we have to keep moving to keep up to date on their camps.
Doing walking rounds, we try to keep our team down to four people. We don't want to invade (their space) with a lot of people. It's their home. So there's an outreach expert who knows the field and knows the people. There's myself or a medical person, and then we always have a student or two. And we bring a social worker with us.
We'll go into the camp, and we make sure they're OK with us coming in. Almost all the homeless are cordial, if not downright really friendly. And we just join them, and they can express what's going on. We always try then to check in with how they're doing medically. If they have insurance, if they have medicines that they should be on that they ran out of. Do they have a doctor? "Did you get that looked at?" What's important to the patient, the person, is our priority.
The care that we deliver out there is dependent on what's in our backpacks. We try to emphasize that this is not good enough. Getting (them) into primary care is our goal.
CNN: What ailments do you see out there?
Withers: People on the street, they're exposed to the elements obviously. So you see a lot of things that have to do with the weather and the difficulties of sleeping out there: frostbite, dehydration, hypothermia. But they also have everyday things, like high blood pressure, diabetes, coughs and colds, pneumonia, injuries.
Photos: 2015 CNN Heroes
Giving needy a lift – All of the 2015 CNN Heroes show how one person can truly make a difference. Cathy Heying helps the needy repair their vehicles at low cost so they can continue on the road to success. Heying has provided affordable car repairs to hundreds of low-income individuals, saving them a total of over $170,000. Click through the gallery to meet more 2015 CNN Heroes.
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Undercover doctor treats homeless – 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 homeless people who needed medical care.
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Photos: 2015 CNN Heroes
Showing kids nature, by bike – For three decades, Marilyn Price has helped at-risk kids use bikes to experience nature. Her nonprofit, Trips for Kids, has 90 chapters worldwide, serving more than 15,000 children a year.
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Choosing guitars over guns – Musician Chad Bernstein's nonprofit, Guitars Over Guns, pairs kids with professional musician mentors in two of Miami's poorest communities. He says his group has seen more than a 90% increase in academic performance and school attendance of students in the program.
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Growing food for his community – Richard Joyner's nonprofit, Conetoe Family Life Center, grows food which feeds nearby residents for free and helps students raise scholarship money.
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Transforming waste into acts of heroism – An estimated 40% of food in the U.S. goes to waste, while one in six Americans struggles with food insecurity. Robert Lee's nonprofit picks up fresh food that would otherwise go to waste and gets it to people in need.
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'Walking off' the war – Iraq War veteran Sean Gobin's nonprofit, Warrior Hike, helps combat vets -- some with PTSD -- by offering them equipment for hikes so they can connect with nature and work through their issues while enjoying the camaraderie and support of fellow war veterans.
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Healing Chicago's 'mean streets' – Dr. Daniel Ivankovich co-founded OnePatient Global Health Initiative to help those with little or no insurance. "I thought to myself, this is happening in America?" he said. He has treated more than 200 victims of gun violence in Chicago and today runs three clinics and performs more than 600 surgeries a year.
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Meet the 'Sloth Lady of Suriname' – In Suriname, Monique Pool has been a passionate sloth protector since 2005. She also takes in anteaters, armadillos and porcupines. Her volunteer group has rescued, rehabilitated and released more than 600 animals.
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Teaching city kids Hollywood skills – Fred Heinrich's nonprofit provides free hands-on job training and placement for low-income minority youth, giving them increased access to the film and television industry.
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He turns poachers into protectors – Edwin Sabuhoro's nonprofit, Iby'lwacu Cultural Village, turns gorilla poachers into protectors by offering income opportunities near a habitat for endangered gorillas.
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No one should die alone – More than 11 million senior citizens live alone in the United States. To help this frail and vulnerable population, Inez Russell started Friends for Life. The nonprofit enlists advocates and friends for seniors in Texas who need a helping hand. Since 1986, Russell and her group have helped 22,000 people navigate a variety of difficulties.
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Jersey babysitter-turned-hero – In 2006, New Jersey native Maggie Doyne used $5,000 she had earned for babysitting to purchase land in Surkhet, a district in western Nepal. She worked with the local community to build the Kopila Valley Children's Home, which today is home to nearly 50 children.
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Keeping people and pets together – Lori Weise runs Downtown Dog Rescue, a nonprofit that provides resources to help low-income families keep and care for their pets near Skid Row in Los Angeles.
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Hero was once expelled – Artist Adarsh Alphons' nonprofit, ProjectArt, provides free arts classes for New York City public school children. Once expelled from school for doodling, Alphons eventually presented his work to the late world leaders Nelson Mandela and Pope John Paul II.
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Saving 'throwaway kids' – Teacher Richard Bienvenue helps troubled teens learn trade skills from professionals and offers them high school education. Many graduates of the Our House program have earned trade licenses and are working full-time.
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Helping the Lakota people – Rochelle Ripley's nonprofit has delivered an estimated $9 million in services and goods to the Lakota people. She and volunteers run a food bank and provide free health services, home renovations and educational opportunities.
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Changing the doctor-patient relationship – Cardiologist Dr. David Sabgir's nonprofit spurs doctors and patients to meet for regular walks.
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Helping families with children – Corinne Cannon founded the D.C. Diaper Bank when her son was only one years old. The nonprofit has provided nearly 2 million diapers to low-income families.
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New ways to aid troubled young people – Tomás Alvarez started a hip-hop therapy program aimed at troubled youth. Participants join peer-mentorship activities and are encouraged to write and rap about their feelings. Since 2009, Alvarez says more than 1,000 young people have found hope through the program.
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'River from the Sky' – Bhagwati Agrawal's nonprofit, Sustainable Innovations, created a network of rooftops, gutters, pipes and underground reservoirs that collect and store water from monsoon rains. The time-saving system frees adults to pursue valuable activities and children to attend school.
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Helping single parents with cancer – Jody Farley-Berens helped start Singleton Moms to support single moms battling cancer. Since 2006, the nonprofit has provided assistance to more than 300 parents in the Phoenix area.
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Helping kids 'see' their future – Eight U.S. states don't require vision and hearing screenings in schools. After going partially blind and deaf as a child, Chelsea Elliott created a solution. Her nonprofit -- the Half-Helen Foundation -- offers free hearing and vision screenings for thousands of children, particularly in lower income communities.
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Helping inmates become 'better people' – Kim Carroll's nonprofit aims to teach life skills to inmates so they can successfully move from prison to society.
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Breaking a cycle of homelessness – Kim Carter helps provide housing, counseling and job training to help women reunite with their children.
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We've seen people with cancers. We've seen liver failure, people who needed dialysis that we actually took to dialysis from the street. It goes on and on and on.
We've seen almost everything that I've seen clinically and a few things that I hadn't. So it's a very rich environment for medical teaching, unfortunately.
CNN: You consider the streets to be a kind of classroom for students. What is their experience?
Withers: I see it in the eyes of the students that I take out. They see how many people are living in places that you'd never want to live. The weather, the rain, the cold.
I think they also get the chance to see success. When they can see a street person succeed and not just get locked in that hopeless category, their vision changes.
The street classroom really ignites, or reignites, what their passion is. They feel like, "Yes, this is what it's about." And they carry that forward. I think the lessons the homeless can teach us about finding the humanity and listening to people are transcendent in all of health care.
Our students, I like to think of them as viruses. And we're spreading them out and they're beginning to go to their medical residencies, and they're saying, "Do you have street medicine here?" or "Why aren't you going under bridges?" And so the dialogue is really spreading.
CNN: What's your hope for the future?
Withers: In the way I'd like to see things, every person who is still on the streets will have medical care that comes directly to them and says, "You matter." And I'd love to see every medical school have a classroom of the streets.
I've dedicated myself as much as I can to finding anyone, anywhere, who's interested in doing medical care to their own street people and helping them. Besides just the good that it does and the money that it saves, having street medicine in every community transforms us. We begin to see that we're all in this together.
It's something that we should take pride in when we can actually treat people the way we would want to be treated.
Want to get involved? Check out Operation Safety Net and the Street Medicine Institute to learn how you can help.