A Woman Of Means

With my nose to the pavement and my lantern lighting my search for a few honest men, I discovered something else - a honest woman. Regardless of what the good Dr. Dicksheet may have thought, there are just as many honest women as there are honest men to be found. However, this is the first woman that I've spotlighted on The Cynical Pharmacist.

And that honest woman is Dr. Roseanna Means, a practicing Internist in the Boston area.

Dr. Means observed that homeless women were underrepresented at the clinics she worked at and learned that using traditional health care access venues, even when staffed by doctors trained in caring for the homeless, is overwhelming for women impaired by exhaustion, mental illness and fear.

Consequently, in 1999, Dr. Means founded Women of Means, a group sending volunteer physicians into shelters to provide care where the women feel safest.

Since that time, Women of Means has grown from a single physician enterprise to an established presence in the medical landscape of Boston area shelters. Today, a team of volunteer doctors and paid nurses, representing all of the major Boston teaching hospitals, selflessly provide free medical care throughout the Greater Boston area.

Dr. Means, and the Women of Means, mission is to improve the lives of women and families who are homeless or marginally housed through quality health care, education, and advocacy.

Guided by a determination to address and improve health disparities by those who suffer severe and complex socio-economic conditions, Women of Means meets its mission by giving vulnerable women and families the "means" toward self sufficiency through improved health and health literacy.

The world is a much better place with people like Dr. Means and her team in it sharing their humanity. But, don't just take my word for it. Watch this CBS Evening News presentation about her -


Source: Boston doctor's kindness helps save homeless