Mobile Dental Clinics at Iraqi Arab Health Board Monthly Health Fairs

Grantee: Medical Teams International
Timeframe: October 2024 – September 2025 | Amount: $15,000

Medical Teams International will use Nimble Grant funds to cover costs associated with (5) mobile dental clinics held at Iraqi Arab Health Board (IAHB) Monthly Health Fairs. The monthly health fairs are a pilot project of IAHB. Since its inception in 2017, IAHB has held annual health fairs to help their community access resources while also ensuring that resources and services are offered in a culturally responsive manner. IAHB provides linguistic and culturally specific support to each organization they partner with at their health fairs and patients receive care in a location and among people who they trust. The response to these fairs among King County’s Arabic-speaking community has been both positive and supportive. To better serve their community, IAHB intends to hold health fairs monthly between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025, to provide community members with resources and services that IAHB currently does not offer or offers infrequently.

Community members identified oral health care as a significant need in King County’s Arabic-speaking communities due to lack of insurance and access to healthcare facilities. The community’s request for dental care services led IAHB to invite Medical Teams International to set up a mobile dental clinic at their health fairs as part of IAHB’s pilot project. A $15,000 PHPDA Nimble Grant will allow Medical Teams to provide clinics every other month during this pilot project.  Medical Teams’ Care & Connect mobile dental program recently participated in IAHB’s annual health fair in June 2024. Medical Teams clinic services were well-received and their patient roster of 10 – 12 patients was full.

Specific services provided at each clinic include blood pressure checks, dental exams, dental x-rays, fillings, extractions, oral hygiene instruction, interpretive services, linguistically appropriate oral health education materials, and referrals to permanent, culturally responsive dental care providers. All services are free to patients, and no one is turned away from Medical Teams’ clinics. Medical Teams will work with IAHB staff to identify and schedule patients to ensure that the Arabic-speaking community fully utilizes each clinic. While patients receive care in Medical Teams’ vans, they engage in conversations that identify other patient needs such as access to food, housing, childcare, insurance, and/or recovery services. Holding Medical Teams’ clinics in a location where other service providers are also providing services, significantly increases the ability of their patients to seek and receive care outside of Medical Teams’ dental program once those needs have been articulated and connections made.

ABOUT OUR GRANTEE

Medical Teams International

“Delivering Life-saving Medical Care to People in Crisis:

People in crisis are dying from preventable causes. Our staff and volunteers are working to change that by bringing basic but life-saving medical care.

Going where we’re needed most, we ease the suffering of people devastated by crisis. We mobilize staff and volunteers quickly – entering places of turmoil, disease and natural disaster – to save lives and leave communities healthier.”