COVID-19 has taught us that providing support for vulnerable people and communities is fundamental to the collective public health. They must be ensured medical care and health education initiatives.
With hindsight, many of the mistakes, stumbling blocks, and obstacles faced through nearly a year of this pandemic could have been avoided. The way in which the health intervention was launched to deal with an emergency of global standing, at a time when an initial, concrete management plan for the entire social and health system had to be implemented. Almost a year after March 9, 2020, the date that decreed the start of the lockdown in Italy, and marked a rapid spike in the spread of the novel coronavirus, taking stock is essentially a duty.
One of the main lessons that the pandemic has taught us is that the territoriality and proximity of the doctor to the patient can be a redeeming element for public health in times of unexpected viruses and epidemics. Proximity, in this case, refers to the speed of intervention, and simultaneously the care of the patient, not only of his physical state, but also the human and psychological. It taught us something that we had needed for some time and that we most likely had some latent knowledge about. Now it has become clear and has manifested itself most assertively.
INTERSOS for the Support of the Frail and Vulnerable
INTERSOS, which has always operated in emergency situations, has been a spokesperson since the beginning of the pandemic for support of vulnerable populations. INTERSOS has moved rapidly across its missions in different locations to make up for important health gaps. Rome has been a testing ground – since the beginning, our humanitarian workers have adjusted the activities of the INTERSOS24 Center (active since 2016, thanks to a partnership with UNICEF Italy with an ambulatory health clinic, a safe space, and a mobile team) into transversal actions of contiguity on the territory adapting to the restrictions implemented by the government. COVID-19 has required a change of course, an implementation of preventive measures aimed at the homeless population or in conditions of social exclusion, in order to guarantee the protection of their health and support the Regional Health System of Lazio.
Mobile Clinics for the ‘Invisible’ Population
Two of our mobile clinics have traveled around the city, moving around the places frequented or inhabited by those that many consider the “invisible”: these are transitional or marginalised spaces, such as the areas close to the Termini and Tiburtina stations; (reception centers for Italian and foreign people in vulnerable conditions, for asylum seekers, and for unaccompanied foreign minors). Two doctors, a nurse, two humanitarian workers with competence in linguistic and cultural mediation, and an expert social worker were present to provide constancy and care for 1,583 people. Each patient received a medical examination and received a health education course offering best practices for prevention of the virus.
Other numbers show how effective and rooted in the area the road work of mobile clinics has been: 150 vulnerable people received care and provided safe home isolation in coordination with the local ASL (Local Health Company), another 250 entered the healthcare system, which up to that moment had been inaccessible to them due to numerous barriers to entry. While the number of infections in the city of Rome and in the Lazio region is progressing with some ups and downs, despite the beginning of the vaccination drive, the activities of INTERSOS mobile clinics continue in tandem. With the same hindsight that counts the errors and uncertainties of the general health system, this type of intervention can represent a pilot experience for integrated territorial assistance (public-private social) , cross-cultural (involving both Italian and foreign populations in conditions of marginality), multidisciplinary, and based on community involvement.