The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s School of Nursing is excited to launch its Chattanooga Care Connector website, an online resource that offers community members free and low-cost health care and social services.
The website allows residents in Hamilton County and eight surrounding counties to easily search for resources by location, service, or both.
Chattanooga Care Connector was created in response to needs expressed during the School of Nursing’s community work. It became clear that a major need was not being met. There are free and affordable services offered in the Chattanooga area, but they are often difficult to find in a central place. With that in mind, the goal was to clear a path to health care access by building a directory that is as user-friendly as possible, leading users to free and low-cost health care.
Anyone can use this tool; however, the School of Nursing is encouraging health-care providers and social workers to share it with their clients or use it for their own patient referrals.
In addition to Hamilton County, the Chattanooga Care Connector lists resources for Bradley, Bledsoe, Grundy, Marion, Monroe, McMinn, Polk and Rhea counties. Users can begin their search by going straight to their county of residence. Or perhaps they need a service that is not offered in their county. Searching by service will filter out every clinic or organization that offers that particular service. Additionally, the website offers a location map that links directly to Google to assist users with their search based on proximity.
While most of the free and low-cost services are available to anyone, some clinics only accept county residents, and some require that patients meet certain financial criteria. So, the first step is to locate the services needed; the second is to contact the clinic to make sure the potential patient meets the criteria prior to showing up.
A Spanish version of the website is also available. Simply click on the "Spanish Translation" button in the upper right-hand corner and the entire website is translated into Spanish. The website also notes which clinics and facilities offer Spanish-speaking services or translation technology.
The website is made possible through funding by the School of Nursing’s Clinical-Academic Network for Developing Leaders (CANDL) program, a U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration grant. The Chattanooga Care Connector was developed with Adam Ewing Design.
The list of services include:
- Addiction Recovery
- Cancer Services
- COVID-19 Testing
- COVID-19 Vaccination
- Dental Care
- Emergency Care
- End of Life Care
- Family Planning
- Free Fitness
- Free Food
- Hearing Services
- HIV Testing
- Homeless Services
- Mammogram
- Mental Health and Wellness
- Nutrition
- Occupational Therapy
- Older Adult and Senior Care
- Pediatric Care
- Pharmacy
- Physical Therapy
- Primary Care and Family Medicine
- Social Services
- Spanish Speaking Services
- Speech Therapy
- STI Testing
- Telehealth
- Translation Services
- Transportation
- Vaccinations
- Vision and Eye Care
- Women's Health and Gynecology
Go to chacareconnector.org to locate free or low-cost services in your area.