Neighborcare Health’s Housing Health Outreach Team (HHOT) partners with Seattle-King County Public Health’s Health Care for the Homeless Network to provide on-site medical and mental health care to residents in permanent supportive housing units in downtown Seattle. These residents are formerly homeless adults facing the results of a lifetime of little to no preventive care. HHOT’s goal is to optimize health and improve quality of life for these vulnerable people by providing patient-centered care through an interdisciplinary team approach that integrates services on-site such as case management, medical care with linkage to off-site primary care services at a Neighborcare Health clinic, substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment and health education. HHOT team staff consists of registered nurses, a physician and a licensed social worker.

 

In 2009, Neighborcare Health secured funding to double the size of HHOT from 5 staff members to 10. In 2010, HHOT provided 3,211 visits for 564 patients.