Dr. Jill Wiwcharuk has been practicing medicine for 15 years, largely working with people living on the streets. Since December, she’s added a new dimension to her work, social media influencer.
Wiwcharuk posts under the handle streetdrjill. On Instagram, she has more than 75,000 followers at the time of writing. Her videos cover topics related to healthcare and homelessness.
“Having done this work for 15 years, you realize there’s just so many misconceptions that the public has about people that are homeless” she said.
“One of the biggest things is how do I help people understand that this is not a personal failure issue? You know, being unhoused is not a personal failure issue.”
Wiwcharuk says she’s seen her work make an impact.
“ There was one follower from Australia who reached out to me. She is raising her niece because her sister has an opioid use disorder, an addiction, and is not able to parent her. And this woman said, ‘You know, I lost compassion for my sister. I was angry at her. I just felt like it was her fault. She needed to make the choice to stop,'” Wiwcharuk said.
“She said that my reels have helped her reframe how she saw addiction, and it made a whole paradigm shift for her, and it gave her her sister back. So, you know, she was able to have more compassion for her sister and repair their relationship, and then support her sister in a different way… it’s not uncommon that we’re getting messages like that, and that feels really important.”
Listen to the full interview to learn more about Wiwcharuk’s work in street medicine, as well as her work on social media.
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