The collaboration of the Milan Monza Brianza League for the fight against tumors continues with the voluntary association le Comunità della Salute which is responsible for promoting social-health integration in the area. Students, migrant communities and vulnerable people are the main recipients of prevention and health programs in a three-year initiative. The budget for the first six months of 2023
Tackling social inequalities that affect people’s quality of life and well-being this is the target he sees Lilt Milano Monza Brianza is next to “Health Communities”. The three-year collaboration project between the voluntary organization that has been operating in Monza and Brianza since 2019 and the League for the fight against cancer aims to reach in particular those who do not make health a priority. We are talking about students, migrant communities and people in socio-economic difficulty.
“Le Comunità della Salute” is an association founded and led by the president Filippo Viganò, with headquarters in Monza which, in order to respond to the needs of the territory and pursue its own objectives, makes use of the charitable support of the Guido Venosta Foundation and other contributions.
The Health Communities
Primary prevention, specialist consultancy, social dentistry and self-help groups. The Health Communities have opened “Health Points” in Cesano Maderno, Lissone, Macherio and Vedano al Lambro, set up in the Community Houses and in other community spaces made available. It is the general practitioners, consultants, social workers and charitable associations who report those who cannot afford to approach specialist health care and request an intervention. The association can count on 13 doctors of various specialties. A telemedicine service and a home psychologist team are added, which addresses the increasingly urgent issue of mental health.
“Being well and taking care of yourself is everyone’s right. Our keywords are equity and health,” he underlines Philip Vigano. «To put them into practice, we nurture a collaboration agreement between the various realities of Monza Brianza. There are two of our main projects: prevention and health protection. This is why we collaborate with Lilt, with whom we have an important working group that intervenes on the priorities of our territory. It is important to work together, for and with the community, which takes care of and cares for those who are most fragile. Thinking of being part of a large system is already creating a system. The synergy with Lilt is strong because we have the same objectives and the same methods of action. A collaboration that I hope will continue further, to intercept together those who need to take care of their health more”.
Recalling that Lilt’s purpose is to reduce the impact of cancer in our society, Luisa Bruzzolo, general manager Lilt Monza Brianza underlines: «We are at the service of people and their right to be informed, have access to treatment and live with dignity, even when ill. Prevention and early diagnosis are the most effective weapons against cancer. Healthy lifestyles and regular checkups protect us and everyone should be able to benefit from them. The collaboration with “Le Comunità della Salute” goes in this direction, with a network commitment to respond to the specific needs of the Monza and Brianza area”.
With “Health Communities” a three-year project is active which includes six actions: promotion of health and correct lifestyles in local communities and schools, food advice, ways to stop smoking, early diagnosis and itinerant medicine. Parishes, sports centers, schools, youth centers and foreign communities are involved, through various methods: webinars, seminars, personalized consultancy, peer educator training but also workshops, awareness campaigns and free visits.
Lilt experts map the area and, after identifying specific needs, create ad hoc programs to implement the project. The initiative has already reached elementary, middle and high schools, proposing awareness-raising and health promotion activities. Interventions were made in various municipalities and thanks to the Spazio Mobile Lilt days of visits and free prevention exams were promoted.
A particular commitment is addressed to Ukrainian families fleeing the war and welcomed in Brianza, supporting them in the need for specialist visits, to follow people in their chronic pathologies, in promoting prevention meetings for women on the theme of nutrition and the need for breast checks. “They are people who have run away from everything and sometimes even from their health,” underlines Viganò. “This means being a community: telling those who have arrived here in an emergency that they are not alone, that we are there and work together to provide attentive and punctual services”.
A first budget of 2023
In the first 6 months of 2023, several interventions were carried out. Awareness-raising courses on healthy eating dedicated to the most fragile people have been organized in Triuggio. Two meetings with ACLI for foreign women attending the Italian course, with 50 participants; two meetings with Caritas for people using food parcels, for 36 people. Awareness-raising activities were also carried out with schools and families.
The Spazio Mobile Lilt brought free visits and exams for the prevention of breast cancer: 48 women had breast examinations and tomosynthesis mammograms.
In Monza, in the headquarters of the CGIL and in the Zara primary school, a path was created for women who attend the Italian school, dedicated to healthy eating, prevention of female tumors and nutrition and emotions. Meetings to raise awareness on health issues were also organized in the Monza headquarters of the Cpia, within the Ferrari Ipsia.
Several paths dedicated to health have arrived in the secondary schools of Brianza in Cesano Maderno, Brugherio and Monza. 23 teachers took part in the training-teachers, with 17 classes and 315 secondary school students sensitized through 147 meetings and 214 hours of training.
In the opening image, the Spazio Mobile Lilt in Triuggio – photo from the press office