Street Medicine Team

Street Medicine Program 

Street Medicine (also referred to as Street Health) is a grant-funded project in partnership with Alameda County Health Care for the Homeless. LifeLong Medical Care is the largest provider of Street Medicine services in Alameda County, overseeing the deployment of five Street Medicine teams that serve Northern Alameda County including the cities of Albany, Berkeley, and Emeryville, as well as West Oakland, Downtown Oakland, and Lake Merritt. Each of our teams provide entirely field-based care in our region’s largest encampments. Teams conduct proactive outreach, meaning they keep a consistent weekly outreach schedule to develop relationships and build trust with encampment residents.

Street Medicine teams are multidisciplinary, made up of advanced practice providers (either a Physician or Nurse Practitioner), Registered Nurses, Social Workers/Intensive Case Managers, and Case Managers. Teams provide a range of integrative healthcare, including urgent care, primary care, and behavioral healthcare, such as therapy and Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT). Our case management services help to support patients to achieve their health goals and to ensure our patients’ immediate felt needs (e.g. food, water, clothing, hygiene) are being addressed. Case managers work with patients to reduce barriers to community health and social services, such as access to the queue for permanent supportive housing, connection to outside health care providers for specialty care, facilitation of transportation services for healthcare-related appointments, and assistance with referrals to higher levels of care along with their other team members’ support.

Annually, our Street Medicine program distributes over 48,000 pounds of food per month, 200,000 ounces of water, hundreds of tents and sleeping bags, clothes, shoes, winter weather supplies, and other survival gear to our patients. We work in collaboration with other community partners to treat the whole person, including advocacy services, legal aid, hygiene services, and harm reduction groups. Together, our hope is to expedite connections to housing and healthcare, reduce early mortality, and prevent entrenched homelessness for future generations of Alameda County residents.