[Melville, NY (USA) – 12 March 2025] Henry Schein, Inc.—the world’s largest provider of health care solutions to office-based dental and medical practitioners—is supporting the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes® screenings at the Special Olympics World Winter Games Turin 2025, that take place from 8 to 15 March 2025 in Turin, Italy. The organization is donating a range of oral health and medical products essential to overall health and wellness. During the Healthy Athletes Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, on 8 March 2025, Henry Schein was recognized for these contributions. Healthy Athletes offers free health screenings and education to participating Special Olympics athletes. The goal of the program is to identify and address unmet health needs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and provide referrals for follow-up care while also promoting healthy lifestyle choices.
As a partner since 2018, Henry Schein has donated essential health care products to support local programs in Canada, Germany, Israel, Jamaica, the United Kingdom, the United States, and now Italy. Most recently supporting the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin in June of 2023, the organization provided $55,000 in medical and non-medical supplies to support the administration of the Games.
“Over the past seven years, our partnership with Henry Schein has been pivotal in enabling us to deliver free high-quality health screenings for our athletes. We are grateful for the organization’s ongoing support in Turin, which enables us to provide accessible and dignified healthcare that everyone deserves.”
Henry Schein’s donations will be used during the Special Olympic World Winter Games for screenings in seven Healthy Athletes disciplines, including Special Smiles® (dentistry), which provides athletes with comprehensive oral health care information, free dental screenings, instructions on proper brushing and flossing techniques, and if needed, a referral to a dental care provider at home trained to treat people with IDD. Henry Schein’s donations also support Fit Feet (podiatry), FUNFitness (physiotherapy), Health Promotion (preventative medicine), Healthy Hearing (audiology), Special Olympics Lions Clubs International Foundation Opening Eyes® (vision care), and Strong Minds (mental health).
“At Henry Schein, we are strongly committed to ‘help health happen’ and to create shared value for society. We are honored to support Healthy Athletes—alongside Special Olympics and health care providers—to help ensure convenient access to optimum health care and thus a healthier future for athletes as we know that people with IDD are often at higher risk for additional health limitations.”
Since its inception in 1997, Healthy Athletes has delivered over two million free health screenings and trained over 300,000 health care professionals, clinical volunteers, and students in using adapted screening protocols and in communicating effectively with people with IDD. These trainings also aid in building the health care community’s capacity to serve the needs of people with IDD outside of Special Olympics events, as providers take these skills back to their practices and provide higher quality health care to people with IDD—not just Special Olympic athletes—in their communities.
The donations to Special Olympics Healthy Athletes are an initiative of Henry Schein Cares, the company’s global corporate social responsibility programme.
