From the homeless to the 'squatters': this is how equity is at risk if the SSN demands residency
Between well-established projects and new experiments, the experiences of third sector actors, healthcare companies, operators and volunteers
Public health has its peripheries, border areas - urban, geographical, socio-economic - where health care has difficulty arriving. Neighbourhoods unknown to the registry office where thousands of inhabitants have no residence and cannot register with the National Health Service, homeless people who do not have a general practitioner, irregular foreigners or those in fragile conditions. The recent congress of the Italian Society of Migration Medicine took stock in Brescia.
Between established projects and new experiments, third sector actors, healthcare companies, operators, volunteers are building bridges. But this cannot be enough. At a time when there is much expectation for the strengthening of care on the territory, the implementation of Ministerial Decree 77/2022 represents an opportunity to make the NHS more equitable and accessible. At the same time, the building sites of Law 176/2024 - unanimously approved by Parliament - which guarantees the right to health care and access to a general practitioner to homeless persons regularly residing in Italia, are being laboriously launched. A law that risks remaining a right on paper if not supported by organisational resources and effective social and health integration.
Social inequalities continue to profoundly affect the health of people, especially the most marginalised. Suffice it to think that the average age of death for a homeless person is about 46 years (a figure that drops to 42 years for foreigners, who make up 56.5% of the homeless) compared with an average age of death of about 82 years in the general population (data from the 2026 Report "La strage invisibile" by the Observatory of the Italian Federation of Organisations for the Homeless). To overcome these gaps much will depend on how primary care will be made accessible, coordinated and shared. Out of respect for the Constitutional Charter and for the good of the whole community.
In the report "Border health care, care that includes the periphery and the homeless", which can be listened to as a podcast on the Radio 24 website and app, three experiences in the field are recounted.
The 'Invisible Wounds' project, the Caritas Rome service that has been active for over 20 years, is dedicated to the care of migrant survivors of torture, intentional violence and extreme trauma.
