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

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Discussion Questions

Part 8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 8: “The Portrait Gallery”

Part 8, Chapter 1 Summary

During COVID-19, the Street Team responds with fervor and sets to work helping their patients as they’ve always done—with an impressive response. Jim meets with the team mostly via Zoom due to his vulnerable status.

Part 8, Chapter 2 Summary

Kidder describes a portrait gallery that Jim has been working on. The portraits hanging outside Jim’s office are images of the many people Jim and his team have treated over the years. Kidder tours the images with him as he tells the stories of the people portrayed. He tells Kidder that initially, he felt that taking photos was invasive. However, a woman named Gretel told Jim that should her estranged children ever look for her, she wants them to have an image they can be proud of.

Part 8 Analysis

Jim’s photo gallery adds a layer of humanity to the many patients he has treated. Often, unhoused people have their humanity stripped from them by stigma and poor medical care. Kidder’s inclusion of the portrait gallery emphasizes Jim’s humanity as well as that of his patients and the impact of the Health Care for the Homeless Program. It also adds another layer to the text through visual storytelling—a technique Kidder has deployed throughout the