AlignCare: A One Health National Healthcare System

Families struggling to access veterinary care is a national crisis. Not being able to get veterinary care negatively affects family health and wellbeing. Furthermore, lack of veterinary care threatens public health due to inadequate prevention and control of zoonotic diseases. The AlignCare® healthcare system, funded by Maddie’s Fund, is designed to improve access to veterinary care for bonded families in need by aligning community resources and activities nationally. The vision for AlignCare® is full integration into American society as the nation's healthcare system for bonded families needing assistance. AlignCare® is structured on One Health by: 1. Addressing the financial and emotional needs of pet parents/guardians (people) 2. Enabling veterinary service providers to help underserved pets (animals) 3. Controlling and spreading costs to address the impacts of low socioeconomics (environment or ecosystem)

Veterinary Social Work Coordinators (VSWC) guide families through enrollment, identification of family needs, and support families with pet-related concerns. They also support the veterinary care teams treating the pets of AlignCare® families.

In this presentation, we will present the One Health structure of AlignCare®, describe AlignCare® implementation successes and challenges in three geographically diverse US communities, describe diverse approaches to creating linkages between veterinary social workers, veterinary service providers and bonded families and develop integrated information systems to inform national expansion.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the characteristics of bonded families in need seeking veterinary care.

2. Describe the role of veterinary social workers in supporting bonded families and veterinary service providers

3. Describe how AlignCare® integrates the One Health structure to improve human and animal health in bonded families

4. Analyze how the components of a comprehensive MIS system collect and manage veterinary service utilization data to improve AlignCare® effectiveness and efficiency