The project titled: “Emergency Case Management Unit” with project acronym ECMU, aims to offer access to a comprehensive package of specialized health, mental health and psychosocial services to complex and vulnerable cases. The project is funded by ECHO – European Commission – European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, with project code identifier: ECHO/-EU/BUD/2016/01017. The project duration is nine (9) months, till the end of February 2018, and is being implemented in Attica Region.

The project introduces a new, top up service -this of specialized health care management- within the existing MDM premises. New spaces on the ground-floor (Primary Health Care), mezzanine (Mental health and psychological support) and 5th floor (case management & social assistance) will be devoted to the purpose. Aside specialized health care services, the project also entails a holistic case management approach that tailors assistance to needs thus offering more proactive, relevant and targeted support. Two teams of health and mental health professionals will ensure access to a comprehensive package of Primary Health Care (PHC), Mental Health and psychosocial support services (MHPSS). These services will be framed and complemented by a robust case management umbrella that will ensure the necessary links with other services and will mainstream referrals to medical labs, hospitals & emergency accommodation until final results are achieved.

The services of the project’s offers go beyond the actions already undertaken by other actors as it primarily targets population that cannot be adequately and/or properly served by the range of health and the emergency services offered, due to fragmentations in target groups’ coverage, in the nature of services foreseen and in the methodology of assistance followed. The approach to be followed advances not only the range but also the quality of health support offered as it transcends from “provision of assistance” to “case management”: it thus fills in a verified gap without creating an extra layer of assistance but by providing extra quality and effectiveness to the system as a whole. The project entails synergies and cooperation with other actors in view of not only covering existing gaps but also multiplying results.

The three key project results are:

1. Provision of holistic Health Care services to complex, vulnerable cases: (direct triage and PHC as well as further treatment through referrals to secondary health care and specialized support)

2. Access to specialized psychosocial and psychiatric support services

3. Case management and needs tailored support

The project aims to guarantee access to health services, focusing on the needs of the most vulnerable populations that are either forced or choose to stay in Greece for an unknown period of time. This goal will be met through the upgrading of the necessary services offered to them. Thus, the project includes access to specialized health care services that go beyond the level of PHC and are not offered for free. The proposed project also establishes concrete referral pathways: MDM-Greece will channel the beneficiaries’ flow to specific hospitals, better regulating it. At the same time, it will provide for a service of health visitors and interpreters, trained and able to support the visits at the hospitals’ level with interpretation and cultural mediation services thus expediting, facilitating and precising the work to be done. Moreover, the project will address emergency shortages of medicines and medical consumables by providing for the operation of an emergency pharmacy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://ec.europa.eu/echo/index_en