Refugee & Immigrant Care

About a third of our patients are best served in a language other than English. Some arrived recently, others have been in this country longer. All are welcome!

Each of our clinics and staff sees refugees and immigrants and we have been doing so since we opened our doors. In the past couple of years we have begun to develop a program specifically targeting the needs of refugees and other immigrant groups in the neighborhoods we serve. Our Refugee and Immigrant Health team work to find new ways to care for people who recently arrived here. The team seeks to be a model for our entire organization and community.

Our goal is to offer culturally appropriate care to the newly arrived populations, and do so in partnership with communities. As part of primary care medical home model, we provide patients with services that include physical and behavioral health, dental care, integrative medicine, and more.

We have staff who can help patients access resources and navigate our medical system, which is very different from other parts of the world. We offer interpretation in the patient’s preferred language during every clinical encounter.

We work with other local agencies including Centro Romero, MIRA, World Relief, MWRC, ECAC and others to collaborate and partner to provide well-rounded services to refugees and immigrants that meet their complex needs.

We receive support from the state of Illinois through funding from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), an agency whose mission is to provide new populations with the opportunity to achieve their full potential in the United States. We offer two programs in partnership with ORR:

Beginning in January 2022, in response to the large numbers of Afghans arriving to Chicago and the need for additional screening providers, we were contracted by the state to partner with Heartland Alliance’s Refugee and Immigrant Care Services, RICS, and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS. RICS and HIAS send their clients to us for initial health screenings and additional healthcare needs.

We complete the screenings according to best practices and we work hard to integrate patients screened into the health center of their choice, either at Tapestry 360 Health or elsewhere via a warm hand-off or primary care referral. We have been contracted to continue as initial screening providers for the next fiscal year.

Our Refugee Health Promotion program supports health and well-being of refugees and other ORR-eligible populations and have been doing so since August of 2020 . This program is at no cost to people who are within 5 years of eligibility for ORR services. These include immigrant categories such as:

• Refugees
• Asylees
• Humanitarian Parolees
• Cuban & Haitian Entrants
• Iraqi and Afghan SIV holders
• Unaccompanied Refugee Minors
• Victims of Human Trafficking

We can provide a number of additional services on top of health care including:

• Language Interpretation Services
• Medical and Mental Health Appointment Navigation
• Health Insurance Enrollment Assistance
• Specialist Referral Navigation
• Transportation Support Services
• Women’s Health Education and Support Groups
• Community Resources

For question about the Refugee Health Promotion program, please reach us at [email protected]  or 872-245-3773.

We currently have one Civil Surgeon at our Devon location who is accepting appointments for Civil Surgeon/Green Card/Immigration Exams for CURRENT ESTABLISHED PATIENTS ONLY who are applying for their green card. If you are a current patient in need of green card/civil surgeon exam, please call to make an appointment and learn more about this service offered at Tapestry 360 Health. We have limited availability now, but hope to grow our Civil Surgeon program in future.