Two Italian organizations -- the National Federation of Orders for Nursing Professions (FNOPI) and the National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty (NIHMP) - signed an agreement on Friday, December 19, aimed at organizing activities and projects to improve awareness on social inequality in healthcare while simultaneously providing solutions.

In particular, the two-year-long program aims to launch models of intervention to foster integration, inclusion and the safeguard of dignity and rights, promoting equal access to health services for all vulnerable socio-economic groups.

Overall, the project strives to promote proactive assistance that is closer to the needs of vulnerable communities.

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Details of the agreement

The two institutions, under the aegis of the Health Ministry, have committed to jointly providing healthcare and social assistance to migrant populations and to people living in a condition of socio-economic vulnerability.

The collaboration will focus in particular on ensuring care for vulnerable people with specific attention devoted to the accessibility of services.

Key aspects include training healthcare professionals and developing activities of research and promotion.

"Promoting an increasingly homogeneous and accessible assistance, which is able to reach anyone who needs it, is part of the DNA of family and community nurses who play a key role in connecting the people they assist with the network of available services, including through activities of orientation and health education," said the president of FNOPI, Barbara Mangiacavalli.

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Cooperation key for successful projects

"The cooperation with NIHMP, which has already produced successful projects in the province of Biella, [in the northern region of Piedmont, and which will soon also involve the southern Calabrian province of] Catanzaro, thus becomes strategic for the promotion of innovative intervention models and good practices," commented Mangiacavalli.

"The protocol with FNOPI allows our work to be further strengthened, highlighting the importance of professional figures like family and community nurses [who are] essential and key in identifying healthcare needs that remain hidden [while offering] appropriate answers," stated the director general of NIHMP, Cristiano Camponi.

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