Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People

How does the health care system contribute to houselessness? How does Kidder’s book detail how the health care system works to address it?

How does the health care system contribute to houselessness? How does Kidder’s book detail how the health care system works to address it?

Kidder examines Jim’s practice of patient-centered care with the unhoused population of Boston. How does this differ from care in conventional clinics or hospitals as depicted in the narrative? Why is this distinction so important?

Kidder cites circumstances where severe trauma figures heavily into the stories of the patients treated by the Street Team. How is trauma a part of the complex, systemic nature of houselessness? How do state and interpersonal violence perpetuate houselessness? Use examples from the text to support your argument.

How do the criminal justice system and prison industrial complex contribute to the problem of houselessness in the lives of Jim’s patients and in the United States at large?

Why is The Myth of Sisyphus cited so often throughout the narrative by both Jim and Kidder? What other systemic issues in contemporary American society can be described using this mythology? Is it an appropriate analogy for Jim’s work? Why or why not?

At the end of the narrative. Jim slowly hangs portraits of the patients he’s cared for over the years. How is this practice a form of care for the people captured in the photos? How are these portraits another form of storytelling?

If you could interview the people in the narrative, such as Tony, Barbara McInnis, and Jim, what questions would you ask? What might their answers be? Write the questions and imagined answers in the interview.