Prevention and socio-health support for emerging poverty during the Covid-19 emergency, in collaboration with Le Comunità della Salute.

Objectives and activities carried out, in summary

In collaboration with the Fondazione della Comunità di Monza e Brianza Onlus and the Volunteer Service Center Monza, Lecco, and Sondrio, the Fondazione Guido Venosta has decided to take part in a project dedicated to the prevention and support of emerging poverty during the Covid-19 era, with funding of €600,000 over 3 years.

The Comunità della Salute project aims to implement curative, preventive, healthcare, and socio-health actions for all people who experience difficulties accessing services, across all age groups. The project involves general practitioners, municipalities, parishes, non-profit organizations, Caritas networks, and the productive sector.

Aims

In response to the aforementioned principles and context—and sharing the idea of health not merely as the absence of disease but as a state of physical and psycho-social well-being—the project, which is even more necessary in the wake of the Covid-19 epidemic, aims to:

• Ensure health and well-being for all ages by reducing inequalities.
• Strengthen the resilience of the population in socio-economically fragile situations and of those in vulnerable conditions, reducing their exposure and risk factors.
• Anticipate and identify situations of vulnerability and need, which may involve particularly exposed groups (e.g., minors, isolated elderly, individuals lacking autonomy in conditions of economic precariousness, etc.).
• Implement actions for empowerment and active involvement of the final beneficiaries (generative welfare), in order to enhance the effectiveness of the interventions carried out for the benefit of the entire community.
• Strengthen bonds of proximity and support through mutual-aid processes.
• Counter conditions of vulnerability and personal disadvantage to address phenomena of marginalization and social exclusion.
• Combat involuntary isolation—such as that experienced during quarantine—especially among the elderly, through initiatives and participatory pathways.
• Develop and strengthen social ties, promoting them both within urban areas and in fragmented or disadvantaged suburban areas.
• Address educational and personal growth inequalities among minors in socio-economically disadvantaged situations.
• Develop non-profit sector networks and strengthen their skills to effectively enhance the service offer.

Objectives

1. Primary Prevention: For both the general public and schools, with particular attention to socio-economic distress.
2. Support and Self-Help: For chronic conditions and for the families of patients experiencing physical, psychological, and social distress.
3. Facilitation: Improve access to diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation for those in socio-economic difficulty.
4. Active Community Involvement: Engage the community (institutions, non-profit sector, profit organizations, and individual citizens—Community Welfare) to ensure the project’s long-term sustainability.

Tools and Actions

• Activation of “Health Points”: Free clinics staffed with doctors for specialist consultations.
• Establishment of a Nursing and Rehabilitation Service: Including home care for individuals referred by general practitioners, municipal social services, and Caritas.
• Activation of Proximity Services: For vulnerable individuals, including medication delivery and grocery shopping.
• Activation of a Free Psychological Support Desk.
• Promotion of Self-Help Groups.
• Dissemination of Institutional Informative Messages.
• Training “Sentinels of Distress”: Based on the LINK WORKERS model, to refer users to local services and the community support network.
• Strengthening of the Territorial Care System: Utilizing telemedicine tools.
• Psychosocial and Healthcare Support: For individuals in isolation.
• Provision of Adequate Personal Protective Equipment: For all healthcare, socio-health operators, and local volunteers involved.