Holistic approach to health care: the NIHMP model

Poverty and migration related diseases often have a common origin and, beyond the organic injury, at times result in psychic conditions that make patients refractory to a formal and bureaucratic approach. The NIHMP’s challenge is to guarantee everybody the effective fulfillment of the right to health and access to high-quality services, adopting, among other things, advanced biomedical technologies.
The Institute provides a multi-specialist medical service with a multidisciplinary staff composed of doctors, psychologists, nurses, transcultural mediators and anthropologists trained for the reception activities and for facilitating access to the National Health Service. At an outpatient basis, the strengths of the NIHMP’ way of working are:

• Quick access to health care: neither appointments nor reservations are needed but you just have to go to our outpatient department by the end of the day and, after the necessary lead time, you will be visited.
• Health for all: all the health care services are provided by National Health Service, we also provide medical examinations to irregular migrants and codes STP/ENI to those entitled.
• Integrated and transdisciplinary approach: a nurse or a transcultural mediator takes charge of the person also giving him/her information and guidance on the National Health Service and on the procedures for accessing the services; the person is then accompanied to the medical specialist for the visit and, if necessary, the doctor will coordinate his actions with that of other professionals (medical and social).