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

Kidder explores the divide between housed and unhoused people in health care and how stigma perpetuates division. Kidder speaks of his own bias when having his first experiences with the Street Team clientele, stating that he “had rarely spoken to such people” and that he “congratulated” himself when he had (8). Kidder examines the class divide through Jim and the way others perceive him as saintly. Dr. Jim is considered so in part because he leads a cause that is neglected and misunderstood by the public.

The narrative explores stigma, class, and prestige. For example, Jim tells the chief of medicine and his superior that he is afraid of being “marginalized” by his own profession and asks that they ensure his protection should he decide to become part of the program (23). He is aware of how the patients with whom he’ll be working are stigmatized and how this can damage his professional career.

Kidder also explores the way stigma inhibits care for patients and how, in the worst of cases, may result in death. When the AIDS crisis hit the US, misinformation about the disease spread like wildfire. This resulted in a range of problems—from mistreatment of symptoms to unnecessary deaths.