SAMU Social

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A SAMU Social is a municipal emergency service in several cities in France whose purpose is to provide care and medical aid to homeless people. This is partially accomplished via mobile units which distribute food, hot drinks, blankets, etc.

It was founded by Xavier Emmanuelli in 1993. He also founded the SAMU Social International in 1998, with an international aim.

The SAMU Social de Paris lists the following goals as its mission:

  • At night: mobile assistance teams
  • 24-hour management of the 1-1-5 emergency telephone number
  • 24-hour emergency shelters for nursing care
  • During the day: reception at the "Solidarity-Insertion-Centre"
  • Increase the scientific knowledge of impoverished populations, from precarious situations to total exclusion, by identifying and analysing the sanitary and social problematic
  • Observing the phenomenon of wanderings, by establishing a typology of populations, tracking their paths and monitoring the social indicators

The name comes from SAMU ( service d'aide médicale urgente, "emergency medical assistance") which is the French EMS; the acronym has become a kind of word, synonym to emergency action. A new signification was find to this acronym: service ambulatoire d'urgences ("mobile emergency service").

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