In Italy the infections have started to grow again and so also in Lazio and in the city of Rome, where from the very early stages of the COVID-19 emergency, INTERSOS teams have supported people in conditions of greater vulnerability. Today as in March, however, the interventions of the institutions in support of these people are insufficient, especially in view of the winter that will only aggravate the situation.
Our two mobile units have never stopped and for months have carried out, in the most populous and peripheral areas of the capital, medical examinations for COVID-19 risk assessment and health education sessions on the prevention measures and containment of infections, addressing those people for whom access to primary care services is very difficult, sometimes impossible.
To date, in fact, there is a lack of health and social pathways for COVID-19 health surveillance that are inclusive and effectively capable of guaranteeing health for everyone and everyone. The serious absence of integrated social and health pathways leaves behind the most fragile people, often forced to resort to emergency services. Since March we have carried out over 1,600 medical examinations and facilitated health and social pathways of diagnosis and COVID-19 follow-up for over 120 Italian and foreign people in conditions of fragility.
INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS
INTERSOS teams are active in the area around Termini station and in the main housing occupations of the capital. Around the Termini station there are several informal settlements, which host a variable number of homeless, settled in the territory or transiting. Homeless people sleep outdoors, without toilets except those in the station, when they can use them. To these are added several communities of foreigners resident or domiciled in the area around the station, who mainly need social-health, legal and support guidance to access social and work inclusion paths. Here, since March, INTERSOS operators have been carrying out surveillance activities through medical visits, triage to identify any symptoms of COVID-19 and social and health care orientation to services, facilitating the early identification of symptomatic cases and cases that require measures. of isolation. In addition to this, the teams distribute hygiene kits, provide guidance to local legal branches and map the most vulnerable people, reporting them to the services of the Municipality to facilitate their access to reception centers or social assistance services.
In the housing squats in which we are present, on the other hand, in addition to the health screening activity, over the months we have built a relationship of trust with the inhabitants, also organizing training days on the topic of prevention with the active participation of the population and involving the community directly in monitoring the state of health of the inhabitants and disseminating good hygiene practices.
MUNICIPALITY RECEPTION CENTRES
Thanks to an agreement with the Municipality of Rome, starting from July we are carrying out training activities for the staff of 8 ordinary and extraordinary reception centers headed by Roma Capitale. The purpose of these trainings is the creation of a model of health surveillance and social and health assistance to protect homeless people or people in conditions of fragility who access these centers, but also for operators to whom specific and specific indications have not yet been provided by the institutions. clear. To date we have carried out 24 training modules aimed at a total of 53 staff.
Starting from August 4, thanks to a protocol signed with the Immigration Office of the Municipality of Rome, INTERSOS staff carries out medical examinations at the Barzilai centre for the fiduciary isolation necessary for the insertion of men into the SIPROIMI (formerly SPRAR) circuit and single women, recruitments resumed in August after months of hiatus.
For several months, in fact, the reception system in Rome remained unaltered due to the absence of safe procedures aimed at making new entries. The resumption of reception in SIPROIMI is certainly a step forward but it is not enough to protect the most vulnerable people. Insertions in the various reception circuits are slowly resuming with waiting lists lasting many months, in a city where reception places were already insufficient before the health emergency. We are waiting for the “cold plan” to be presented for the welcome during the winter period and we hope that the experience of these months can be a lesson and that it acts in discontinuity with the past by enhancing services and really protecting the most fragile.
- READ THE REPORT ON COVID-19 EMERGENCY IN ROME