Our goal is to protect and improve health for people in the U.S. and around the world throughout the acute phase of the pandemic and in the global recovery that will follow. We will work in close partnership with our network of more than 4,000 local health centers worldwide, health workers, strategic partners and others. Our focus areas include health center resilience, mental health, access to supplies and medicine, vaccine readiness and curbing the spread.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is being felt by people in almost every country around the world and is likely to be felt well into the future. Throughout the acute response and recovery phases, health systems, local health centers and health workers will continue to be significantly strained, both in the U.S. and internationally. This project aims to support health workers and local health centers, overburdened by the pandemic, as they continue to support patients.
We will pursue programming that addresses local gaps with an increased focus on achieving meaningful impact among disproportionately affected communities, all while applying an equity lens. We will focus on health center resilience, quality of care and continuity of health center operations & services, mental health needs among health workers and disproportionately affected communities, access to supplies & medicine, vaccine confidence & readiness, and curbing the spread through education.
Americares has already had significant impact with our COVID-19 response. We are supporting health workers and health centers to continue offering care to the disproportionately affected patients who need them. In 2020, we trained nearly 30,000 participants in topics like mental health & psychosocial services and health system strengthening. We also completed over 291,000 patient visits at Americares clinics, including telehealth. We expect to continue much more of this lifesaving work in 2021.
