The healthcare center Samifo in Rome provides advice and treatment for asylum seekers and refugees to help overcome trauma due to violence, torture and war. There are about 10,000 refugees and migrants in Rome.
Patients at the Samifo center are mostly people who have just arrived in Italy, don't speak the language and are not acquainted with social and welfare assistance, explains Giancarlo Santone, the center's coordinator. They are refugees and asylum seekers who have fled war and violence.
Migrants ''suffer unmentionable torture'' during their travels, Santone stresses. “Operators must recognize the symptoms of trauma to be able to intervene immediately with treatment to heal suffering and favor quicker social integration''.
The center has a front office with cultural mediators to give information on healthcare, spaces where patients can get individual attention, basic healthcare services as well as specialized and psychological assistance. It also provides a service for women who have suffered sexual abuse and medical-legal certifications.
Some 10,000 people have used the center over the past 10 years with on average 1,000 new users a year. Most of those who seek assistance are male - between 75 and 85 percent. The largest number of patients comes from Afghanistan, countries on the Horn of Africa and francophone African countries.
Assistant, training and rehabilitation for work
Out of approximately 1,000 new users a year, about one-third suffered extremely traumatic episodes of violence in their home countries, says Santone. “Some have serious psychiatric problems, sexually transmitted diseases and endemic illnesses like Aids, tuberculosis, hepatitis and malaria.” Yet the percentage of these diseases is clearly decreasing, he explains.
The Samifo center takes part in the project FARI (Training, Support, Rehabilitation, Inclusion) funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) 2014-2020 providing assistance to hosting centers with specific initiatives for refugees with very serious psychiatric conditions and unaccompanied minors, including those who have perpetrated crimes. The center also provides training for hosting center operators and work training courses for refugees will kick off in September.
Set up in 2006, the Samifo center is under the patronage of UNHCR and cooperates with agencies helping refugees in the Rome area. It was set up thanks to an agreement between the local healthcare authority Asl Roma 1 and the Centro Astalli, the Italian branch of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS).