For over 10 years, Mary has been head nurse at BRC's CDCC, serving the neediest of New Yorkers: street homeless men and women with interconnected challenges of trauma, addiction, and mental illness. Mary is dedicated to providing each person the best care by getting to know them beyond their symptoms.
This is no easy task. Her patients can’t always reliably tell her their current or past medical problems. So Nurse Mary developed a non-verbal picture set that creates a way for any client to communicate with her, allowing her to deeply understand – and then address – their individual and unique issues.
Most clients are in Mary’s care for just one week, but over this time she builds a deep connection with each and every person. She approaches them with undiminished sympathy: she listens to them, she challenges them, she even sings Motown with them. Above all, she makes them feel valued. And in doing this, Mary helps them transition to the next step up the ladder of health and self-sufficiency.