Dr. Rachel Bedard

Sure.

I'm Rachel Bedard.

I'm a physician and I'm a writer.

I'm a contributing writer to the New York Times Opinion.

And as a doctor, I am an internist and my subspecialties are geriatrics and palliative care.

But I've had this sort of unusual career where for six years I was a physician on Rikers Island and I now work in a homeless clinic a couple days a week.

So the clinic is, it's a safety net clinic run by the city.

The city has a network of these safety net clinics that are embedded in the public hospital system.

And so my clinic is at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn.

So the clinic's in the hospital, but it's an outpatient clinic.

It's primary care.

We serve people who are either...

unhoused or sort of in precarious housing situations.

They were recently, you know, housed or they are staying on friends' couches or something like that.

But the majority of the people that we take care of are living in shelter or people who are sleeping on the streets.

So we do sort of all of their primary care.

That population has a very high rate of comorbid mental health issues, very high rate of comorbid addiction issues.

but also is just very medically sick.

So the majority of folks that I take care of have at least one chronic medical comorbidity, like high blood pressure, diabetes, or other diseases like that for which they're taking daily medications.

Yeah, so, you know, one thing I'll say about New York is although the rates of inequality here are astounding, there is, I think, actually more mixing in New York City than there is in a city like L.A., for example, where people are always in their cars, right?