A homeless person seems isolated when the thermometer is at its lowest? A person has lost their home and doesn't know who to ask for help? 0800/99.340.
Our helpline is active 24 hours a day, every day of the year to answer requests for help, accommodation and information, as well as to receive reports of people in distress.
Every day, we receive hundreds of calls and deal with social emergency needs in the Brussels Region. More specifically, our operators:
The toll-free number allows the collection of individual data, which is necessary for social support. It is the nerve center of the Samusocial and has a function of regulation between demand and interventions.
Anyone in need of shelter can call upon our services. Individuals are encouraged to report to us the presence of persons who appear to be in social distress.
In 2019, the mobile teams carried out 34,700 services and had 11,342 meetings with 1,791 different people.
Every day and every night of the year, our patrol teams crisscross the streets of Brussels to provide emergency assistance to the homeless: listening, medical care, psychosocial support, transport and orientation to emergency accommodation centers.
Patrolling has four specific objectives:
As an interdisciplinary tool, the patrol team includes a driver, a nurse, a social worker and/or a psychologist:
“The idea is not to create a street psychiatric treatment system, the idea is to put back into common law what everyone is entitled to in order to be treated. Because 60% of people who are on the street have mental suffering, or even psychiatric problems.” – Xavier Emmanuelli, President of Samusocial International.
In 2019, 8,874 different people were accommodated in the Samusocial’s emergency reception centers.
Emergency accommodation comes into play in different types of situations. To date, people are being welcomed in emergency in our first line reception center, located in the city center of Brussels. Depending on their situation (single, ill, family with one child or more), the persons accommodated are then referred to other Samusocial’s centers (family centers, MediHalte center, Housing First program) or, oriented towards other associations active in the field of assistance to homeless people. In addition to emergency accommodation for the homeless, the Samusocial of Brussels is also appointed by the federal authorities to manage a humanitarian plan that allows the accommodation of 500 asylum seekers, in the two centers we have opened in the Brussels Region.
Emergency shelter for the homeless responds to:
Every accommodated person benefits from :
In 2019, the Samusocial of Brussels offered 289,327 overnight stays to 8,874 different homeless people, including:
In 2019, 1,722 emergency exit guidance projects were opened.
If the social support relays the work initiated during the night in the reception center, its aim is to sharpen and deepen the social diagnosis made at night in order to define a support plan.
To sum up, the service of social accompaniment takes up the person’s situation as a whole and acts with the primary objective of recovering the person’s common rights, in order to develop a project that will allow him or her to bounce back.
Objectives of the accompaniment:
In 2019, of the 1,722 orientation projects activated, 460 resulted in orientation towards emergency and/or street exit solutions.
In 2019, 116,955 medical or nursing services were carried out during consultations in our centers.
Homeless people often suffer from medical problems related to living on the street. They do not usually see a doctor, even if they are ill. Their priority concerns are eating, shelter, protection from the cold and avoiding the insecurity of the street. As a result, more or less severe pathologies risk degenerating into serious illnesses.
The people accommodated in the Samusocial centers can benefit every evening from nursing and medical consultations. Our permanent center also offers daytime consultations. Our doctors and nurses play an essential role in diagnosing and referring patients to specialized services and ensuring continuity of care. Nurses monitor treatment in our centers as well as on the street, through the action of our mobile teams. In addition to the ongoing work of our medical teams, Médecins du Monde’s volunteer doctors and nurses hold consultations several evenings a week in our various centers.
When it comes to allocating accommodation spaces, priority is given to people who are ill or in need of care. Many people hide their health problems. It is therefore a proactive approach led by our nurses and doctors that makes it possible to treat chronic pathologies and to avoid having to go to hospital emergency units at night for treatment that is often possible on an outpatient basis.
The main illnesses encountered during consultations are nervous system disorders (including psychiatric disorders), dermatological problems, various pains and inflammations, disorders of the cardiovascular system, respiratory illnesses, etc.
Our MediHalte center also offers medicalized accommodation to 38 people whose state of health does not require hospitalization but care or a rest period.
“Consultation is not only about medical care, it is also a place to listen, which is very important for homeless people. They have a lot to tell us, their situation, their loneliness, the violence they face or the harshness of the street, especially when it is cold. Most often they have no family, few friends and no work. Some of them hide their precariousness from those around them, they have lost a job, a house and little by little, it is the social downfall. Sometimes the whole family is homeless, it is difficult to see children so destitute.” – Dr. Van Osta, Médecins du Monde volunteer.
The emergency reception centers are located in the heart of Brussels and allow the immediate reception of people looking for an accommodation solution.
The family center offers second-line reception, following the emergency reception. Families are welcomed in this separate center in order to limit the confrontation with a public presenting any other problems.
This “Housing first” program is aimed at young people aged between 18 and 25 years. It allows them to move immediately from the street to their personal housing. Once the young person has been re-housed, support is provided to help them solve the problems that led them to the street.
The MediHalte center shelters homeless people whose state of health requires medical care (which would usually be provided at home). Health status and vulnerability determine the priority of reception.
Every year, the Samusocial of Brussels is appointed by the regional authorities to manage the Winter Plan for the homeless in Brussels. Our various centers welcome more than 1,000 people every night during the Winter Plan.
The Samusocial of Brussels is appointed by the Fedasil agency to manage reception centers for asylum seekers in the Brussels Region. The Samusocial of Brussels is part of this approach in order to ensure that the capacity of the accommodation system for homeless people is preserved.
Improve the person’s actual situation and lead her/him towards solutions to get off the street.
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