R. Jan Gurley

Physician-writer

Dr. Jan Gurley, a board-certified internist physician, is the only Harvard Medical School graduate, ever, to have been awarded the coveted Shoney’s Ten-Step Pin for documented excellence in waitressing. Her health/science background covers the vast territory from sub-cell systems, to human studies, to the captivating science of seeing patients one-on-one. Her training includes basic science research (graduating magna cum laude from Harvard), then a residency at UCSF in Internal Medicine, as well as a Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship (Stanford/UCSF Joint Program) in epidemiology, public health and public policy, followed by work as an administrator of large divisions of the San Francisco DPH where she currently sees patients in a clinic for the homeless. Doc Gurley’s health writing has appeared in Salon, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Chronicle Sunday magazine, along with regular pieces in BlogHer, KevinMD and as one of SFGate's City Brights. Jezebel has called her "indispensible." Her research has appeared in academic publications including the New England Journal of Medicine. You can read more about her at www.docgurley.com.

Articles

The Tenderloin: Substance abuse and Nate

<p><em>This is one in a series of articles, running the 5 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's, examining the relationship between housing loss and death in San Francisco.</em></p>

Living and dying in the Tenderloin: Substance abuse and Nate

But like many people on the street, Nate can’t seem to physically relax; no matter how safe the environment he is constantly vigilant. He rarely makes eye contact, his smile is fleeting and involuntary and his shoulders stay hunched. And Nate’s story about how he ended up here is also in many ways remarkably similar to many others’.

Be selfish, give a gift to a homeless person

Both gratitude and altruism are good for your health and there’s nothing like giving a gift to a homeless person to help you experience both. Her are some easy, practical, cheap ways to be selfish and give a gift to a homless person.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Dying and Homelessness

This is one in a series of articles examining the relationship between housing loss and death in San Francisco. Check out the previous articles in the series, Looking for death,Gunpowder on the streets, and Will losing your home kill you?

Hidden in plain sight: dying and homelessness

The batterings and bruisings and infections and rapes. You began to wonder how anyone survives homelessness. And why couldn't they come in for medical treatment when something went wrong?

Saving Your Health When You're Losing Your Home

<p>Studies show that many people faced with home loss and housing uncertainty <a href="http://www.docgurley.com/2010/11/23/will-losing-your-home-kill-you/">can take a tremendous hit to their health</a>. If you're going through difficult times, and worried you too may lose your home, what can you do to try to buffer or reclaim your health?</p> <p>Here are some tips for ways to counteract some of the toll that constant stress (and the insomnia, distraction and desperation that go with it) can take on your health:</p>

Will Losing Your Home Kill You?

This is one in a series of articles examining the relationship between housing loss and death in San Francisco. Check out the previous articles in the series, Looking for death, and Gunpowder on the streets....

Part 2: Gunpowder on the street

<p>In tandem, both ambulance, and fire truck, red lights strobed across the narrow cave-like doorway to the Tom Waddell clinic. The images flashed in the dark, like red-tinted, stop-motion animation. Inside the narrow space the six of us from needle exchange creaked zombie-like to our feet from wher

Will losing your home kill you?

Even if the death rates among the homeless are higher, isn't it just because the people we're talking about are deeply flawed to begin with? You've probably heard people say that the only reason someone is homeless (especially those chronically homeless) is because they're not like you and me.