Barbara McInnis

Barbara McInnis (1935 – July 19, 2003) was an American public health nurse, tuberculosis specialist, teacher, and innovator who dedicated her life to providing - as well as increasing the accessibility of - health care services for homeless people. The Barbara McInnis House, located in the South End of Boston, is named after her.

Early life McInnis was born to Joseph "Roy" and Esmeralda (Paszynska) McInnis in 1935. She grew up in Boston and attended Cathedral High School in the South End. Mentoring of physicians In 1985, McInnis, and the nurses she worked with, wanted to incorporate doctors in their clinic, but felt doctors had been trained improperly, and that their traditional approaches terrified patients. McInnis mentored Dr. Jim O’Connell and "retrained him" to slow down, respect patients' dignity, be consistent, address people by name, offer care and hope, and never judge. McInnis told O'Connell to remember, "the core of the healing art is the personal relationship." McInnis's ideology was foundational to the operations of Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, which O'Connell became the founding physician and president of.

McInnis taught O'Connell, and other newly hired doctors, how to soak feet and made them soak feet for their first month working at the Pine Street Inn clinic. This ritual reversed power dynamics between providers and patients, and gave doctors time to build trust and rapport with their patients. It also allowed doctors to treat common but agonizing ailments, and learn about their patients' struggles and health through the conditions of their feet. Foot-soaking is still offered to homeless people at the BHCHP clinic at St. Francis House, the largest day shelter in Massachusetts.

O'Connell commented on McInnis's mentorship in Harvard Magazine saying,

Outreach work In 1986, the Massachusetts government funded the first outreach van for homeless people in the state, dubbed "The Overnight Rescue Van", which gave food, blankets, and medical treatment to folks sleeping outside or in places not made for habitation during the three coldest winter months. McInnis proposed that the workers on the van should keep track of deaths among rough sleepers to determine what seasons averaged the highest deaths. In that year, the staff documented 56-deaths among rough sleepers and found that they died an equal amount in all four seasons. McInnis and O'Connell reported this data to the Massachusetts State House, which led to the legislature's public health committee financing the van year round.

Barbara McInnis House In 1993, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless program opened the Barbara McInnis House respite center, named in honor of McInnis and her dedication to Boston's homeless people. Barbara McInnis House is the first respite center for homeless people in the United States. The original facility was located in Jamaica Plain and was laid out like a half way house with a recreation area, cafeteria and a lot of outdoor space. In 2008 it was moved to a Boston City Hospital building in Boston's South End where it was builit as a medical facility. The facility keeps approximately 2,200 patients a year off the street and out of congregate settings while they recover from serious illness. McInnis House also provides dignified end-of-life care for undocumented, terminally ill, homeless people.

Recognition In 1987 and 1998, folk-singer Ben Tousley released albums Ben Tousley In Concert: Standing There With You and Open the Gates, which both feature the track, "Song for Barbara" about McInnis and her service to the homeless community in Boston, including to Tousley. The song was featured on radio stations in New England in the 80's and 90's.

In 1997, McInnis and her fellow nurses were honored by former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala for their commitment to outreach and preventive care for homeless people.

McInnis's contributions are documented in the books, Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder, Stories From the Shadows by James J. O'Connell, and Health Care of Homeless People by Philip W. Brickner.

Lyndia Downie, longtime executive director of the Pine Street Inn, said of McInnis in the American Journal of Nursing, "She was accepting, nonjudgmental, brutally honest, brutally forgiving, and always took care of others first, all in a very grounded way."

In Rough Sleepers, Larry Adams, a formerly-homeless member of BHCHP's consumer advisory board, credits McInnis with preventing him from committing suicide.

Faith McInnis was a lay Franciscan who believed in kindness toward all creatures. She had a turquoise cross tattooed on the inside of her wrist. She fed the mice in the alleys outside of the Pine Street Inn shelter.