Former heroin addict Marc Goldfinger, a reporter for the newspaper Spare Change, used to despise his current audience.
“I hated homeless people,” Goldfinger said last night at a discussion in the Boston University School of Medicine Hiebert Lounge.
Having lived on the streets of San Francisco and Boston, Goldfinger, who has since cleaned up and now works as an addiction counselor, added a personal voice to the panel, “Perspectives on Homelessness.”
Goldfinger said his path to working with the homeless came after a “spiritual awakening,” which landed him a first job working for Spare Change, a publication aimed at the homeless, and eventually to cleaning himself of his heroin addiction.
Goldfinger, who was one of six professionals on the panel, told almost 100 people at the Hiebert Lounge about the challenges and rewards of dealing with the homeless.
The panel — organized by six students in the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship program, which combines medicine with service in underserved communities — included speakers from different disciplines, including medicine, social work and occupational therapy, that all serve the growing homeless population.
MED graduate student Elizabeth Selden, a member of the fellowship, said the goal of the discussion was to “inspire young healthcare students to think about potential careers working with the homeless.”
Dr. Theresa Kim, a doctor for the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, said she began working in a shelter after medical school when she was unsure of whether she wanted to continue her residency.
Kim said she was inspired by the nurses there and found the clinic a “neat way to come back to medicine.”
“The rewarding thing is the surprises you see,” said Christine Helfrich, an occupational therapist and Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences assistant professor. “The people you didn’t expect to make it, really changing their lives.”
Yves Agustin, a Haitian immigrant and case worker at the Barbara McInnis House — an emergency medical shelter — said he agreed with the other panelists.
“The homeless population presents an endless source of reward,” he said. “You learn from the emotional exchange at the raw level.”
While the panelists described how they find working with the homeless satisfying, they acknowledged the continuing problems of reaching out to the homeless.
Dr. Jonathan Rothberg, a doctor with Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, said he was frustrated by the simple medical care, such as diabetic management, that is near impossible for the homeless to use.
“You can’t bring needles into a shelter,” he said. “There isn’t anywhere to refrigerate insulin, and when you’re worried about eating, you aren’t worried about eating a diabetic diet.”
At an individual level, Rothberg said citizens can help the homeless in the city by offering to buy them food, instead of giving them money.
“You know [food] won’t be going to drugs,” he said.
MED second-year graduate student Anthony Lim, who moderated the event, concluded by encouraging students to get involved with BU’s homeless outreach program.
“It could be a 24-hour panel discussion, with this topic,” Lim said.
