Boundaries: Pre-med boundaries in a high-crime poor urban area...

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Gauss44

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What boundaries, if any, would you put in place if you lived in an area overflowing with "need" where assertive homeless people and beggars lined your street, disabled people in need of help were everywhere, neighbors traded sex for drugs, dealt drugs, made poor choices, and many of these people had kids?

I'm sure I'm not the only one on here with a background* and mind capable of helping many of these people. Of course, any of them could turn up in my Emergency Department any day providing perhaps a conflict of interest**. (Presently, my main interests are emergency medicine, neurology, and psychiatry.)

What kind of boundaries, if any, do YOU think should be in place? Where would you draw lines in this situation?

*I grew up around crime, poverty, etc. and quite competent in handling many situations that result from the above scenarios. A lot of time, people - adults, kids, and teenagers - just need an intelligent, non-drugged, non-overstressed, mind to help them sort out their problems.

**I'm not 100% clear about what these conflicts of interest or boundary problems could be. I could use help identifying them. I suspect that if you know a patient (including psychiatric patients who know where you live), you could request that another doctor take over for you?

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I'm not sure what boundaries you are talking about and what ER doctors have to do with it.

As an ER doctor, you do what you have to do according to established procedures and hospital policies.

As a person, you can go as far as you want in helping individual people.
 
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I think it's pretty presumptuous of you to assume that you can "help" other people willy-nilly. How exactly do you help those people? Give them Dr. Phil-esque life advice?
 
I think it's pretty presumptuous of you to assume that you can "help" other people willy-nilly. How exactly do you help those people? Give them Dr. Phil-esque life advice?
You can give homeless food, you can volunteer in your community in an organization that helps homeless. There are churches and organizations that provide housing for homeless, etc.
 
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You can give homeless food, you can volunteer in your community in an organization that helps homeless. There are churches and organizations that provide housing for homeless, etc.

That would be the non-presumptuous type of helping that more people should do. But that doesn't seem to be what the OP had in mind. Sounds like he wants to be a personal shrink to every guy on the street.

*I grew up around crime, poverty, etc. and quite competent in handling many situations that result from the above scenarios. (A lot of time, people - adults, kids, and teenagers - just need an intelligent, non-drugged, non-overstressed, mind to help them sort out their problems.) There are many people like me, but I think I may be one of the few pre-meds in between worlds (academia, medical school, the past).
 
I'm not sure what boundaries you are talking about and what ER doctors have to do with it.

As an ER doctor, you do what you have to do according to established procedures and hospital policies.

As a person, you can go as far as you want in helping individual people.

I thought about the part on bold in the quote directly above. I think on that note, it's good to limit exposure to anyone who tends toward illogical or controlling anger, or who expects others to break rules for them. It boils down to, "Is this person going to respect me when I say, 'I'm not allowed to (fill in the blank)."
 
I think it's pretty presumptuous of you to assume that you can "help" other people willy-nilly. How exactly do you help those people? Give them Dr. Phil-esque life advice?

My background: As a foster child growing up, there was essentially a revolving door on my house where new foster kids would come and go every month or so. Without intending anything other than being a decent person, I ended up in the roles of mentor and tutor. Kids would show up traumatized, zoned out, often full of bad behavior, abnormal behavior (ex. sexually abused kids would often be afraid of the bathroom and go elsewhere, kids who blamed themselves for too much would sometimes cut their arms and legs, as would some kids who oddly thought it was cool, kids who starved would sometimes steal a LOT OF food and hide it in their rooms, etc.) and poor grades. Over several months, those kids would change into assertive pleasant people, and often end up getting good grades. When I was in middle school, my case worker told me that he and my foster parents were very proud because they felt that I played a significant role in many of my foster siblings' improvement. I continued seeking out people to help throughout college.

Your question: To answer you question, I am kind, I gain trust, I offer to listen. I listen, I help with thinking through problems (and now I have decades of experience dealing with specific vices), and sometimes I do more (like personally tutoring someone or personally looking after a person, etc.). I've actually had psychologists ask me to keep an eye on suicidal people. I've taught kids that they are NOT the reason for their parents angry outbursts. And a whole lot more. I genuinely enjoy it.
 
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You can give homeless food, you can volunteer in your community in an organization that helps homeless. There are churches and organizations that provide housing for homeless, etc.

Yes, and you can also let homeless people know about resources available to them. Just last week a woman came up to me when I was studying in South Station. She said that she was pregnant, homeless, starving, and afraid to go back to the shelter.. could I help her?

I took a piece of paper from my notebook and wrote down the phone number, address, and directions to the Department of Transitional Assistance, and what they require to give her immediate emergency housing, food stamps, and WIC assistance. She had no idea she qualified.

She was actually pointed in my direction by a homeless man who knows me by name. I use to make small talk with him where I use to study at Dunkin Donuts.

People always tell me to be careful about who I talk to. My sense is that those people cannot tell the difference between a desperate person and a dangerous person. However, I am open to listening to any logical arguments to that point.
 
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Yes, and you can also let homeless people know about resources available to them. Just last week a woman came up to me when I was studying in South Station. She said that she was pregnant, homeless, starving, and afraid to go back to the shelter.. could I help her?

I took a piece of paper from my notebook and wrote down the phone number, address, and directions to the Department of Transitional Assistance, and what they require to give her immediate emergency housing, food stamps, and WIC assistance. She had no idea she qualified.

She was actually pointed in my direction by a homeless man who knows me by name. I use to make small talk with him where I use to study at Dunkin Donuts.

People always tell me to be careful about who I talk to. My sense is that those people cannot tell the difference between a desperate person and a dangerous person. However, I am open to listening to any logical arguments to that point.

Well that wasn't as air headed as I thought it was gonna be.
 
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