Doctors of the World Seeks Volunteers to Support Users in Their Health Journey

“Before, we did mobile medical consultations with volunteer doctors and nursesrecounts Sébastien Bechereau, the coordinator in Charente. They were arrested because the permanent access to care (housed in the premises of the Angoulême hospital) took over, with the support of the ARS. That’s how we work at Médecins du Monde, we identify a need, we testify to the added value, then when a structure takes over, we withdraw to do something else. From now on, we are doing health mediation. Several volunteer health professionals did not find themselves in this new project and left us.” Hence this call for new goodwill!

Support users in their care journey

“We are looking for people to provide medical support, in conjunction with our health mediator. At the association, we receive, for example, foreigners in a precarious administrative situation, asylum seekers without accommodation, unaccompanied minors who are not looked after by the Department. We start the prevention course, the update of vaccines, we help them to enroll in a common law health course, to find a doctor, a dentist, because this public does not have access to the usual social workers », specifies Sébastien Bechereau.

The mediator and the volunteers sought accompany the users in this process, go to the first medical consultations with them. Doctors of the World has an active file of around 100 beneficiaries, mainly isolated men from sub-Saharan Africa and, to a lesser extent, from Eastern Europe. “ We also provide information to health professionals who do not always have all the keys. I remember a Romanian mother who lived in a squat and suffered from hypertension and overweight. The nutritionist had given her a document written in French with good dietary practices to follow, which she could not put into practice, given her living conditions. » No specific profile sought for these volunteers. It is “know-how, the ability to listen and not to be judgmental which counts, especially as training time is provided.

The association is also looking for volunteers to hold the hotlines which take place every Monday and Wednesday afternoon and for people to manage the administration. Another information meeting is scheduled for September. In terms of availability, volunteers must be able to carry out at least two hotlines per month “, emphasizes the manager.