STREET MEDICINE & OUTREACH

The heart of what we are about

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In October 2021, the XChange Street Medicine Team was born. A group of volunteer medical professionals partnered with XChange outreach and saw a need not only in our community, but in the outer lying areas of SW Washington to provide some basic medical treatment to the rough sleepers of our area. 

 

Our team is made up of practitioners, peer support, nurses and other volunteer medical professionals who provide compassionate care.  We meet the rough sleepers where they are at and provide them with a needs assessment. 

 

We help to treat, educate, and empower them to manage their own soft tissue injuries through the healing process.  We can also help facilitate appointments to and from MD appointments, follow up care, as well as some care management.  

 

Our Street Outreach team has been relationship building with the houseless community since 2020 , assisting individuals with their daily living needs, and building trust, until they are ready to engage to build a new life for themselves. Now partnered with volunteer medical professionals we are able to meet these individuals survival needs in the realest way possible, by assisting with wound care and medications for infections. 

 

By meeting individuals needs to survive we are able to show that their still is hope and care for the people who feel hopeless and uncared for. We are able to lessen Emergency Department visits for these individuals whose only way of care previously was the ER. It also builds relationships between the houseless and our Peers with lived experience, who can then walk them through the process of regaining their footing in life.  

 

Our faith based medical team is funded solely on donations and grants through the XChange Street Medicine Team.