Native American Community Clinic
Report date
October 2021
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
Syringe Service Program (SSP) Monthly Meetings-
These meetings were held via zoom, facilitated by one of NACC's peer support specialists. Attendees included Southside Harm Reduction Services, Indigenous People's Task Force, North Point Health and Wellness, Aliveness, Clinic 555, and
These meetings have helped facilitate partnerships and a unified strategy for street outreach in Minneapolis. Discussion topics include: resources needed in encampments (supply shortages- narcan, syringes), pathways to housing, biohazard containers, infectious disease testing strategies, linking participants to resources/care, and educating service providers on reducing stigma towards people using drugs.
As a result of these meetings we were able to develop a coordinated outreach schedule among the SSPs to more safely deliver resources to encampments and reduce duplication of services.
These meetings were held via zoom, facilitated by one of NACC's peer support specialists. Attendees included Southside Harm Reduction Services, Indigenous People's Task Force, North Point Health and Wellness, Aliveness, Clinic 555, and
These meetings have helped facilitate partnerships and a unified strategy for street outreach in Minneapolis. Discussion topics include: resources needed in encampments (supply shortages- narcan, syringes), pathways to housing, biohazard containers, infectious disease testing strategies, linking participants to resources/care, and educating service providers on reducing stigma towards people using drugs.
As a result of these meetings we were able to develop a coordinated outreach schedule among the SSPs to more safely deliver resources to encampments and reduce duplication of services.
Community Connections:
We were able to use a vacant dollar tree space to host a weekly open house for resources and infectious disease testing with a voucher system to link participants to services at the Native American Community Clinic (NACC).
We purchased and distributed 200 phones and phone cards used to connect with participants and enable them to schedule appointments and coordinate resources for themselves. We continue to distribute phone cards to participants with phones and use these opportunities to connect with participants about their medical, dental, mental health visits and treatment goals.
We were able to use a vacant dollar tree space to host a weekly open house for resources and infectious disease testing with a voucher system to link participants to services at the Native American Community Clinic (NACC).
We purchased and distributed 200 phones and phone cards used to connect with participants and enable them to schedule appointments and coordinate resources for themselves. We continue to distribute phone cards to participants with phones and use these opportunities to connect with participants about their medical, dental, mental health visits and treatment goals.
Telehealth in outreach settings:
- Our outreach team purchased and piloted providing telehealth at homeless encampments and at Avivo's tiny house village.
- The piloting phase taught us a lot about the logistics of having a confidential and effective visit with a provider in an outreach setting.
- Successfully completed 25 telehealth visits in an outreach setting.
- Our outreach team purchased and piloted providing telehealth at homeless encampments and at Avivo's tiny house village.
- The piloting phase taught us a lot about the logistics of having a confidential and effective visit with a provider in an outreach setting.
- Successfully completed 25 telehealth visits in an outreach setting.
Key lessons learned
Consistency is key- with community connections, partnerships, and services. It took a while for our interventions to gain traction but week after week participants began to engage with more and more services.
Test the technology- with the both the participant phones and telehealth equipment we needed to first test the technology after purchasing- we realized the headphones for telehealth did not have a microphone and the data card purchased for the cell phones were not compatible with the phones we had purchased.
After testing and re-testing we found equipment that was easy to deploy and use by outreach staff and participants.
After testing and re-testing we found equipment that was easy to deploy and use by outreach staff and participants.
Communicate, communicate, communicate- this lesson was learned through keeping everyone on our outreach team informed as well as our partners and the community as we piloted new interventions and made changes to our programs.
Reflections on the community innovation process
The community innovation process diagram relates closely to our work. Our work was primarily in the areas of generate ideas and test and implement solutions with extensive involvement in the community processes to be community led and sustainable.
Progress toward an innovation
One innovative areas was launching telehealth in an encampment setting- this was an effective way to bring services to at-risk individuals. This approach worked towards equity by reducing barriers to access care and has potential to be sustainable if participants are enrolled in a MN health plan. We are closer now to expanding this model in a variety of settings based on Minnesota's weather- temporary housing facilities, parks, drop-in centers, etc. There is still work to be done in developing the ideal staffing model to support this project as well as improving communication systems to support the visit. We would also like to expand the service offerings to include behavioral health and dental telehealth services.
What it will take to reach an innovation?
We did not achieve innovation in the area of housing networking. Additional work and progress needs to be done in areas of city, county, and state working with community organizations and encampment leaders to provide funds and resources to address housing issues.
What's next?
Next steps and plans include developing outreach strategies for winter months that allow for socially distanced space for participants to engage with educations and navigators to link to resources. Plans include working with temporary housing facilities and community organizations to provide telehealth services, infectious disease testing and linking patients to resources. We are also exploring the possibility of creating a collaboratively hosted drop-in center to engage with the community and provide laundry, food assistance, syringe services, testing, education, and services via telehealth (medical, behavioral health, dental).
If you could do it all over again...
Inform ourselves that COVID would last longer than expected and not have let us pause for so long during the initial months of COVID adjustment. This would have been important to keep us in the innovative state of mind to find solutions to delivering resources and services during COVID.