Roseanna H. Means, MD founded Women of Means in 1999 “to improve the lives of women who are homeless or marginally housed through quality health care, education and advocacy.”
From 1990-1998, Dr. Roseanna Means, a practicing Internist in the Boston area, worked for a program that operates health clinics for the homeless. She observed that homeless women were underrepresented at the clinics and learned that using traditional health care access venues, even when staffed by doctors trained in caring for the homeless, is overwhelming for women impaired by exhaustion, mental illness and fear. Consequently Dr. Means founded Women of Means, sending volunteer physicians into shelters to provide care where the women feel safest.

• Improve immediate access to health care for the Commonwealth’s poorest women and children.
• Provide medical supplies and equipment to health care professionals and shelter staff treating indigent populations.
• Share Women of Means alternative medical delivery model with other health care professionals.
• Advocate for the women at clinical, social justice, academic and health policy levels.