Community House of Ala

Community Health Houses to improve territorial health assistance (Mission 6 – Component 1, Investment 1.1)

Italy’s Recovery and Resilience Plan provides for the establishment and operationalisation of at least 1038 Community Health Houses, through the activation, development and aggregation of primary care services and implementing (energy efficient) assistance delivery centres for an integrated response to care needs. The objective of this component is to strengthen the Italian National Health Service (NHS) by inter alia enhancing the protection against environmental and climate-change related health risks and better responding to the communities’ needs regarding local care and assistance. Local healthcare assistance is fragmented and subject to regional disparities that result in different levels of healthcare provisions and health outcomes across regions.

The investment is financed by Italy’s Recovery and resilience plan by EUR 2 billion.

The Casa della Comunità (Community House) of Ala  is an innovative social and health centre designed to meet the health and social needs of the local population, with a particular focus on people with chronic diseases, the elderly and frail individuals. The facility offers a wide range of primary care services, promoting public health and facilitating access to local care that reduces the need for travel. The central objective of the Casa della Comunità di Ala is to guarantee continuity of care, facilitating the connection between hospital and community care. Inside, citizens can use medical clinics, nursing care centres and mental health services, thus finding daily and comprehensive support. The Casa della Comunità model is multidisciplinary: general practitioners, nurses, psychologists and social workers work together, offering personalized care paths that range from prevention to rehabilitation. Technology plays a key role in managing services, thanks to the use of digital medical records and advanced computer systems that allow real-time monitoring of patients' conditions. This tool facilitates communication and coordination between healthcare professionals, allowing rapid and targeted interventions when necessary. The Casa della Comunità di Ala also offers social support, with home care services for citizens in vulnerable conditions. Patients' families find psychological support and specific advice, thus reducing the burden of family care. In addition to health and social services, the centre organizes health promotion initiatives, such as awareness campaigns, free screenings and educational meetings for disease prevention. The Casa della Comunità di Ala therefore represents a point of reference for the health and well-being of the local community, thanks to an integrated and multidisciplinary approach that significantly improves the quality of life of citizens.
The work, which began in October 2023, involved the transformation of the Ala social-health facility into a Community House that developed in the main body, located in Piazza Papa Giovanni XXIII, and in the building in Via Brigata Mantova.
In the main body, the basement houses the spaces intended for motor/physiatric rehabilitation on an outpatient basis, as well as the service spaces.
The spaces on the ground floor have been renovated to accommodate the continuity of care area, the clinics for the vaccination service and the territorial nursing service; the single access point and the acceptance office have also been placed; the blood sampling point and the service spaces have been maintained. The clinics for general practitioners have been maintained on the first floor. The psychiatric rehabilitation function has been maintained until a suitable health facility becomes available. In the building on Via Brigata Mantova, the specialist care clinics have been placed on the ground floor and the dental care clinics on the first floor.

This project is financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility with EUR 350000.