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HealthTeam Copenhagen PDF Print E-mail
Written by Henrik Thiesen   
Tuesday, 05 February 2008
The City of Copenhagen project “Health‐Team” comprises four nurses and a physician. Health‐Team is a part of the outreach work in Copenhagen Community and offers joint social and health initiatives directed at citizens that want, and need, help for complex problems, but are not able to seek it out.
 
 
Health‐Team is a part of the outreach work in Copenhagen Community which is joint social‐ and health initiatives directed at citizens that want and need help for complex problems but are not able to seek it out.

Health‐Team (HT) is an extensive way of getting in contact with people who do not – for various reasons – get in proper contact with the healthcare system. HT is based in the social system but works with the rights of an ordinary GP‐service. This means that HT can access all parts of the hospital system and begin long‐term collaboration with specialist and rehabilitation services, the substance treatment system as well as psychiatric in‐patient and outreach services.
 
On the other hand, the location inside the social system gives quick access to the whole system of shelter and social services. In addition to the direct outreach work, HT has been assigned to carry out some prevention activities, such as detection of infectious diseases and vaccination for hepatitis, among special groups and among people living in contact with homeless substance users in general.
 
We have now been working for almost 3 years and our report for the third year has just been finished. It has been a goal from the beginning to try to blend the best from social outreach and contact, such as a broad approach and acceptance; with the best from medical practice, such as evidence base and focus on the best available treatment.
 
In Copenhagen we’re lucky to have 3 low threshold nurse‐stations, serving many people who are homeless or people who are more or less marginalized every day, so Health‐Team’s primary goal is to help the people who don’t even get access to these clinics. 

Target group 
It could be said that the most marginalized in relation to access to health are the target group of HT, but we have found that many people actually fluctuate in and out of homelessness and related problems. As a consequence, we have defined the target group in relation to the availability of health‐services, so that in fact our target group is homeless citizens with health‐problems, where contact has failed with what would normally be the appropriate health‐system. It can be people who do not have contact with a general practitioner or people who would be uncomfortable in the normal hospital framework. 

GP on wheels
The work of Health‐Team is similar to the work done in an ordinary primary healthcare service, with some exceptions. The team is organized in the framework of a primary healthcare service. The exceptions are more a matter of degree than a matter of different offers of treatment. There is also a need for x‐rays and anti‐hypertensive treatment, but most problems relate to extensive substance use which needs to be considered over time. The fact that the team works as a general practice means that Health‐Team has the same possibilities as any general practice in Copenhagen, concerning treatment and referral to the secondary health‐system. 
 
Health‐Team bridges the gap between lack of accessible health‐service and the individual. Health‐Team does not work from a stationary clinic, which means that work is done where the patients are. Transportation is by bicycle ‐ the fastest method in modern city traffic – at least in Copenhagen. Health‐Team attempts to attain contact with the citizen as fast as possible, but giving priority to the most urgent needs. The citizen will always be offered contact within 7 days - most often within a few up to 24 hours.
 
 
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