Health protection of applicants for and beneficiaries of international protection in vulnerable psycho-health conditions 2016-2018

The Region of Sardinia, in partnership with the Sardinian Health Protection Agency (ATS), promotes the project called “Implementation of reception assistance and socio-sanitary support services addressed to vulnerable people hosted in reception centres.” The project is funded by the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund AMIF 2014-2020 - Specific Objective 1. Asylum - National Objective 1. Reception/ Asylum - letter c, “Strengthening of the system of first and second reception – Protecting the health of applicants and beneficiaries of international protection in vulnerable psycho-health conditions also by strengthening institutional competences.”

Starting from the experiential asset developed by the ATS through the institutional activity of the Health Promotion Service - Migration Medicine Area, the project (ended on 31 December 2018) aims at implementing institutional health services addressed to asylum seekers, by defining a new model of health care reception for people with special needs using the typical approach of proximity medicine. A service provided by a Mobile Unit - staffed with a highly specialised multidisciplinary team - which provides health care to asylum seekers staying in reception centres, also considering public health protection needs.

Alongside the core activity of the Mobile Unit, the project is aimed at achieving a further series of specific objectives:

• Adopting and implementing an Operational Plan to meet public health and the health care needs of asylum seekers hosted in reception centres, primarily health monitoring and assistance
• Developing innovative models responding to the health needs of applicants for and beneficiaries of international protection in conditions of post-traumatic vulnerability and severe psycho-health distress
• Standardising the management of procedures for age recognition of foreigners who have declared themselves to be unaccompanied minors, based on requests from the police headquarters and prefectures of Sardinia, by adopting regional application procedures of the Protocol for the identification and holistic multidisciplinary assessment of the age of unaccompanied minors
• Strengthening ATS health workers’ skills through specific training courses focused on the transversal issue of post-traumatic vulnerability and severe psycho-health discomfort, also considering the stress management faced by the operators involved
• Disseminating the experimented intervention model and supporting its adoption by the other Local Health Agencies, in order to standardise procedures and performances at regional level.
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The project is divided into 4 specific actions:

ACTION 1 - Operational Plan (POA) (in Italian);
ACTION 2 - Mobile Unit (in Italian);
ACTION 3 - Regional technical board (in Italian);
ACTION 4 - Training programme (in Italian)
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