Saúde na Rua: Azores Harm Reduction Outreach Team

The Covid-19 Pandemic entailed a series of challenges, which greatly affected groups with severe psychosocial and health vulnerability, which include the homeless and people with addictive behaviours and addiction issues.

These circumstances, much like in the rest of the world, were equality felt in the Azores, which led to a post-pandemic scenary of singificant increase of people experiencing homelessness , recrudescence  and visibility of the consumption of psychoactive substances, with a prevalence of the New Psychoactive Substances, as well as a significant increase in the need of assistance, within these risk groups, in health issues related to STD's (Sexually Tramitted Disesases).

Therefore , with the intention of bringing closer the services and professionals to this vulnerable public by going directly to them, in september of 2023, the “Health on the Street” project was implemented by Novo Dia – Associação para a Inclusão Social,  helped and financed  by the Direção Regional da Saúde e Desporto dos Açores.

This project consisted of a street team that intervened under the philosophy of Risk Minimization and Harm Reduction, which provided support to vulnerable publics, whose action aimed to protect individual and public health, and acted in the city of Ponta Delgada and Ribeira Grande.

From a response of proximity, based on street work, this multidisciplinary team (psychologists, nurses, peer educators, psychiatrist and an infectious disease specialist), aside from providing a characterization of these vulnerable groups, throughout the months of September and December, developed a series of activities and actions with extremly promising results.

In just 4 months, “Health on the Street” reached 221 people in a situation of vulnerability, insuring health care on the field, which  resulted in, among others, 72 first time psychology consultations for initial evaluation; 199 on field nursing consultations (e.g. Treatment of wounds, vital signs evaluations, 126 infectiology consultations, 239 STD tracking, 90 of which are awating results and 13 already in treatment ; 126 referrals  and/or social services or housing follow-ups to health services, most of which related to STD related at the hospital or for intervention of treatment withing  the scope of Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies.