Bridging the health care gap for people in the U.S.
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When Medical Teams was founded in 1979, we focused on helping people facing crises in other countries. But it quickly became clear that there was an enormous need in the U.S. for the kind of care we provided internationally. Our mobile dental program launched in 1989 and has served our neighbors in the Pacific Northwest ever since.
Today, our Care & Connect Mobile Health clinics are the next generation of our original mobile dental program. We offer urgent dental care and health screenings to address chronic illnesses for people with limited access to care, through our mobile health vans. Our Care and Connect Program also helps connect patients to ongoing care. These clinics are offered free of charge and are located in direct proximity to where the need is.
Our programs rely on the strength of our incredible volunteers, who give their time to work alongside our staff in caring for people in their own backyards. When patients board our vans, they’re met with compassionate people who offer a menu of services, free of charge. We do everything from dental services to health screenings that help identify health concerns long before there’s an emergency. If someone needs specialized follow-up care, we connect them to low or no-cost resources.
In addition to our Care & Connect Mobile Health Clinics, U.S. Programs is in the middle of piloting a Disaster Preparedness and Response Program, focused on coming alongside communities to help strengthen their resiliency and capacity to respond when disaster strikes. As natural disasters increase in frequency and complexity, the demand for resilient community-based systems and targeted support for vulnerable populations will only conintue to grow. Medical Teams is continuing to explore a way forward in this broad and ever-changing landscape of U.S disaster preparedness and response.
More than anything, we’re honoring the dignity of our neighbors here in the U.S. by building bridges across the gaps in our health care system.
Our areas of work
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Barriers to health care in the U.S. exist in many forms. Nearly 10% of people in the U.S. lack health insurance, and many more don’t have dental insurance. Without insurance, medical care is expensive. Even with insurance, sometimes people have a hard time getting access to health care — treatments aren’t covered or there are long wait times for Medicaid.
Our clinics help people who are limited by geography, finances, or language barriers. We provide free, patient-centered, mobile healthcare to seasonal farm workers, veterans, older adults, those experiencing material poverty or houselessness, those with disabilities, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, people recovering from substance abuse disorders, and more.
For over 30 years, Medical Teams has provided free dental care throughout the Pacific Northwest. Now, our mobile health clinics have evolved to include basic medical care. From rural farms to food banks, we bring medical care to people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to health care.
Though the demand for dental care brings many people to our mobile health clinics, it’s often not their only unmet health concern. Our patients struggle with issues like diabetes, high blood pressure and mental health conditions. Many of them don’t have a regular medical or dental provider to provide continual, long-term care.
Through Care & Connect Mobile Health, we deliver services that address those issues. We fill gaps in a way that complements the care of existing providers, if there are any. We connect patients to follow-up care that will help them stay healthy. Our goal is to bring holistic care to the people who need it most.
Learn more about Care & Connect Mobile Health
Though our founders focused on international disaster response, sometimes disasters strike close to home. Medical Teams’ disaster response in the U.S. began with a mission to send volunteer trauma counselors to comfort rescue workers after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Since then, we’ve sent personal hygiene and health kits, as well as volunteer workers, to ease the suffering of survivors of natural disasters across the country, from wildfires to earthquakes to pandemics.
In the last 2 decades, we’ve seen an exponential rise in the number of emergency declarations across the U.S. Requests for aid have doubled, and even tripled, in some regions.
Learn more about U.S. Programs Disaster Preparedness & Response
Our U.S. Programs team consists of 30 staff members based throughout the Pacific Northwest and supported by our main office in Tigard, Oregon. We’re blessed to work alongside more than one hundred volunteers who dedicate their time to helping their neighbors access loving, life-saving health care.
Note: The numbers and statistics reflected on this page were collected from October 2022 – September 2023.
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