Women of Means - by Judith Perry
Women whose incomes fall well below the poverty level often have to
choose
between feeding their children and health care. One organization is
helping homeless women avoid having to make that choice.
Women of Means, Inc. is a non-profit that provides services for homeless and disadvantaged women who range in age from 18 to 90 years old. The only option for many of them is to receive costly emergency services. Women of Means is free and convenient. There are no forms to fill out. Women can even withhold their real names. The doctors take time to listen to their stories and welcome and encourage follow-up visits. Most return. This model of care has given the most defenseless of women confidence to venture out for essential services and has saved lives. This is the story of one such life.
Barbara lay snuggled in her bed that cold winter morning. As she talked with her friend on the telephone, she was suddenly interrupted by a loud knocking at her door. Startled, she threw the phone down and jumped from her bed. As she peeped through the door she saw the figure of a man who she recognized as a tenant on the floor below. Afraid that he would wake the neighbors with his banging, Barbara cracked open the door -- leaving the chain lock in place. "What do you want?" she asked. He immediately started screaming at her, accusing her of waking him up with all the noise she was making. "What noise?" she asked, confused. "I haven't even gotten out of bed yet."
As she spoke, he became more and more enraged. He forced open the door with the weight of his body and rushed into the room, pushing her aside. He noticed the phone lying on the bed. Barbara rushed toward the phone threatening to call the police. The man fled. Two days later, Barbara's door was kicked in, her apartment was vandalized, and her family treasures were stolen.
Frightened and bewildered, Barbara sat on the bed crying. How had she ended up here? This was such a dangerous neighborhood and so far from the safe suburban community where she had spent most of her life. Feeling ever more depressed and helpless, she realized that she had had little choice in the matter.
Barbara came from a middle-class family. She was the youngest of three children. Her father was a civil engineer and her mother was a homemaker. She lived a pretty ordinary life growing up. She stayed close to home. She never married. After her father died, she remained at home to help her mom. The two older siblings had long since moved on and made separate lives for themselves.
Twenty years passed, and Barbara learned her mother was terminally ill. Barbara's life started falling apart. She started drinking and was devastated when her mother soon passed away. Middle-aged and alone, being with her family had been all she'd known. She sought therapy that ended up only marginally helping matters.
Her brother re-entered the picture to take charge of settling their late parents' estate. Barbara was asked to move out of the house and rent a room until the family home could be sold and the proceeds divided among the three children. She continued drinking to drown out her sorrow and loneliness.
After many months, Barbara became traumatized by more bad news:
her brother had gambled away nearly all of the family inheritance. She
was literally destitute. Her drinking increased, and she faced a grim future
of temporary rooms and apartments. A few years later, her brother died
suddenly, and she became increasingly estranged from her sister. There
was no one to help her
out.
And so here she was. In a run-down apartment, in a dangerous part of the city, being threatened by a man twice her size. Robbed, violated, terrified. Nothing in her life had prepared her for this.
This degree of vulnerability led to further drinking and depression. Barbara soon became homeless. Her health was failing. She was declared legally blind. She had developed a heart murmur. And long years of neglect had ruined her teeth. Humiliation and shame about her homelessness, however, kept her from following through on regular medical care.
To escape loneliness and boredom, Barbara spent her days at Women's Lunch Place, a day shelter for women who were down and out. It was a safe space that offered nutritious meals and companionship. It was here in 1998 that she met Dr. Roseanna Means. Dr. Means offered free medical care to the women. All one had to do was write her name on a clipboard and "Dr. Roseanna" would take care of the problem.
Barbara was drawn to Dr. Means' genuine warmth. She finally got up the nerve to ask for help. At first, all she wanted was her blood pressure taken. But she soon found herself making weekly visits to the doctor and telling more and more about her past. Dr. Roseanna empathized and listened patiently. Barbara began to trust a doctor for the first time in many years.
One day, Dr. Roseanna suggested that Barbara come to her private office for a full physical. Barbara was nervous, but she went. Dr. Roseanna detected irregularities with Barbara's heart and ordered a series of tests. The murmur that Barbara had been told was "nothing to worry about" turned out to be part of a life-threatening condition. A careful family medical history revealed that Barbara's father and brother had died of the same conditions that threatened her, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (where the heart muscle gets enlarged so as to block even blood flow) and ventricular fibrillation (a heart rhythm that could cause sudden death).
She would need a defibrillator placed under the skin of her chest that would be wired to her heart to make it stay in normal rhythm; she would need to get her dental hygiene restored; she would need to control her smoking habit; and she would have to take heart medicine for the rest of herlife. Dr. Roseanna promised to help her get through it all.
Dr. Roseanna helped her find a therapist, and a psychiatrist who prescribed medicine for her depression. She saw dentists and an oral surgeon who pulled out most of her teeth. And there were more heart tests and two cardiologists: one who looked at the big picture, the other who would insert the pacemaker. At each step, scared and uncertain, she wanted to back out. But ultimately, she got the support -- and the pacemaker -- she needed.
Barbara got that support because Dr. Roseanna Means saw her every week for the two years it took to diagnose and treat her heart condition. Week after week, Dr. Roseanna went to the day shelter, sat with Barbara, and patiently calmed her fears. She called Barbara in the evenings and on weekends. She knew that if she were to sink back into depression or to have a relapse of her alcoholism, her life might be in danger. And all of the care that Dr.Means gave Barbara was free. That is the model of Dr. Means' non-profit organization, Women of Means.
In the past year, Barbara's heart condition has been completely
controlled, she is well on her way to getting a set of dentures, and she
has almost stopped smoking. This past March, she moved into her own apartment
-- one that's safe, comfortable and atttractive -- for the first time in
15 years.
Barbara has found her way home, and the way she feels about Dr. Roseannais
heartfelt: "They don't come any better."
Judith Perry - Women of Means: http://www.womenofmeans.org
Boston, Massachusetts
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