My Fellowship time in Portugal finished on a high note, with my last day having been spent with problematic drug users and the people who help them, out in the streets of Lisbon. It was an intense experience and one that will stay with me, both at an emotional and professional level. The Lisbon I saw on my rounds with one of the Street Teams is not the picture postcard of what most occasional visitors to the city get to know. I was confronted by a harsh reality of people, some of them rough sleepers, on patches of waste ground by highways and housing estates, using drugs among rabble, weeds and rubbish. Yet not one of these very vulnerable people, whom we would term highly 'problematic users', was anything but courteous and friendly. They all of them gave me a warm handshake and some of them spent time to talk to me and included me in their conversation with the members of the Street Team of West Lisbon I was with, Raquel Gloria and Rui Coelho.
There are two Street Teams in Lisbon, working daily in the West and East parts of the city. They provide a range of assistance, including kits with clean syringes and contraceptives, advice, medical support and transportation to hospital, health or social services.
The Street Team staff invest a great deal of importance in building up relationships with the drug users on their rounds, and I was able to see why. There was trust and confidence between them, and that is fundamental in being able to deliver effective help. Many of the users lead very chaotic lives and have never had health support before: even getting them to accept the possibility of seeing a GP, or to undertake a test is a success, as Raquel explained to me. Small victories can go a long way, cumulatively, towards a betterment of their quality of life and a reduction of the harms to which they are exposed.
There are two Street Teams in Lisbon, working daily in the West and East parts of the city. They provide a range of assistance, including kits with clean syringes and contraceptives, advice, medical support and transportation to hospital, health or social services.
The Street Team staff invest a great deal of importance in building up relationships with the drug users on their rounds, and I was able to see why. There was trust and confidence between them, and that is fundamental in being able to deliver effective help. Many of the users lead very chaotic lives and have never had health support before: even getting them to accept the possibility of seeing a GP, or to undertake a test is a success, as Raquel explained to me. Small victories can go a long way, cumulatively, towards a betterment of their quality of life and a reduction of the harms to which they are exposed.