You can care deeply
without losing yourself.
MARCUS GREATHEART MD MSW
Physician, Social Worker, Facilitator
I help healthcare teams, educators and community organizations care for people experiencing addiction, homelessness and mental illness without losing sight of their own humanity.My work includes keynotes, workshops, my new book The Field Guide to Frontline Care, and a free twice-monthly email for people doing frontline work — Notes on Staying Human.
Book Marcus to Speak
Speaking and Workshops
I deliver keynotes and workshops for healthcare teams, educators and community organizations working in homelessness, substance use and mental health.My sessions combine practical communication skills, frontline leadership and systems thinking to help teams navigate conflict, build trust and sustain compassionate care.Who I work with
-Health systems and primary care networks
-Hospitals and inpatient teams
-Residency and training programs
-Community organizations
-Indigenous health gatherings and anti-racism conferencesWhat participants take away
Participants leave with practical approaches they can use in their next shift, including:-Communicating through conflict without escalating it
-Holding boundaries while preserving relationships
-Responding to harmful behaviour without shame
-Repairing trust after difficult interactions
-Supporting colleagues in demanding work environments
-Staying human while working within imperfect systems
Common Topics
Every keynote and workshop is tailored to the audience. Common themes include:-Staying human in frontline work
-Addiction, homelessness and harm reduction
-Leadership that strengthens culture
-Anti-Indigenous racism in healthcare
-Communication skills for difficult conversations
-Building compassionate systems without burning outIf you're planning a conference, workshop or educational event, I'd be happy to discuss what would be most useful for your audience.
The Field Guide to Frontline Care
Some of the hardest parts of frontline work are rarely taught. How do you hold a boundary without punishing someone? Respond to anger without escalating it? Stay compassionate without becoming overinvested? Keep showing up without hardening?The Field Guide offers practical tools for the moments that don't make it into training manuals or case conferences.Inside you'll find short, shift-tested chapters on communication, boundaries, conflict, grief and sustainable frontline practice. Built for real encounters. Written for the work as it actually happens.Coming July 28, 2026. Available from Amazon and from your local bookseller138 pages | paperback and ebook
Watch Marcus Speak and see how he works with audiences.
Watch Marcus Speak
Watch Marcus in action in this PechaKucha talk on street medicine, burnout prevention, and why compassion is a strategy, not a weakness.
Social Media Reach
Videos have reached over 1.9 million views in the last year, resonating with clinicians, families, and leaders. Most viewed video has over 850K views, opening with the blunt truth: “Using drugs is the only thing that makes homelessness tolerable.
Other Resources
for Clinicians
Be the Doctor You Always Wanted to Be is a reflective workbook for physicians who want to reconnect with why they chose medicine. With more than 100 prompts on communication, meaning, and burnout, it is used by residency programs and wellness groups as a structured way to talk about the hard parts of practice.
About Marcus
Sign up for my bi-weekly email on staying human in frontline care.
Marcus Greatheart MD MSW is a family physician and social worker working in low-barrier primary care and addiction medicine on Vancouver Island. He teaches practical communication and leadership skills for teams working in homelessness, substance use and mental health.His work focuses on the moments where care and constraint collide: when trust is low, conflict is high and there are no easy answers.Marcus is the author of The Field Guide to Frontline Care and the creator of Notes on Staying Human, a newsletter exploring the realities of frontline work.
What leaders are saying...“Marcus is a rare kind of speaker—reliable, deeply authentic, and able to connect with people on a profoundly human level. At our conference, his talk stood out as one of those moments that people don’t just hear, they feel. He speaks to what we all need to be reminded of: the power of love, community, and humanity. Marcus doesn’t just share ideas—he leaves you changed.”Dr. Sara Lea, Medical Director, Education, Onboarding and Leadership Development, Island Health
I live and work on the unceded territory of the Laichwiltach people, and the We Wai Kai, Wei Wai Kum and Kwaikah First Nations, for which I am truly grateful.“Compassion is empathy in action.”© 2026 Dr. Marcus Greatheart