I was somewhat surprised to read today that homeless shelters(specifically in Geneva and Lausanne) are expected to fill up and social services may not be able to accommodate everyone with the cold weather coming in (see link). I know there are obviously homeless and poor people in Switzerland, but I also assumed that social services was well equipped to deal with emergencies like this...Does anyone know what the homeless services are like here? Is there any way to help? From what I understand, the Roma population and other immigrants are particularly at risk as the Swiss are given priority in shelters.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on how to help, please share! I know in some cities in the US, there are some non-profits that go around at night in the extreme cold weather in vans helping anyone left out, is there something like that here? It’s so sad to think of anyone being left outside overnight in this bitter cold

http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/switze...he-night.shtml

There are several Obdachlosenheim in each Canton.

and welcome to the forum.

Thanks for your welcome and the links. I realize there are homeless shelters, but according to the news I read they may not be able to accommodate the need:

"In Geneva, the 200 beds available in homeless shelters are full and authorities have announced they will open an extra 80 beds for the coming week. Authorities in Lausanne are planning similar moves.

“We’re going to do as much as we can,” Michel Cornut, head of Lausanne social services told the Swiss News Agency. “But unfortunately I’m not sure that we can accommodate everyone.”"

It's the last line that concerns me...

I saw a homeless person yesterday begging in the snow, with his dog which was hiding under a blanket. I felt sorry for them, but had no cash, so I went to get some. But when I returned they were gone.

I understand and sympathize with your concern, but I'd really like to know where you heard such a thing as that (the bolded portion)?

This is the case of hundreds of homeless in Montreal every winter with temperature being between - 10 and -30.

A majority of them are affected with mental illness. The city and organizations are doing their best to help them but what about hospitals? Shouldn't be the responsability of the health system to care for them?

And here am I .... believing that there was no such thing as Homeless Persons in Switzerland! People living out on the streets? .... Really?

I remember there being drives to collect donations of blankets and coats when the weather got particularly cold in the Chicago area - is there anything like that here? I know they collect clothing often, but is there any special "drive" specifically for warm clothing and blankets when the weather is bitter?

Dosenbach have a sale on odlo thermals if you want to stock up and do drive bys.
Effective up to -30

One thing I learned in my volunteerism days is that it is much more cost effective to everyone (well, except the retailers I guess), to donate money or used items, not to BUY items to donate. Most non-profit organizations receive discounts, tax breaks, or both, when making purchases for their organizations, so if your intent is to spend money to donate, much better use of the exact same amount of money would be to donate the money directly.

Meanwhile, I HAVE some used coats that are just sitting around as they're too small for me, so am wanting to know if anyone happens to know of any organization specifically collecting coats to help folks who are unable to utilize shelters for one reason or another.

Hospitals are for sick people. Long term mentally ill do not belong in hospital.

Well, to put this into context: Up to last year was there a mandatory military service in Germany and in order to not do it did I spend even more time in a mandatory social service. As friend of mine doing the same worked at a homeless shelter: They are completely empty from spring to autumn and only slowly fill up if the weather gets really cold. Because you cannot drink alcohol or do drugs in one... 200 beds that are empty most of the year sounds more than reasonably sized for a canton the size of Geneva. I do not think they will let people freeze to death, but stack them in some bomb shelter or similar - it is just unreasonable to size the shelters to the absolute peak need...

That demand peaks right now is not that surprising, however, you won't find many Romas there as you thought in your original post: Romas are not homeless, they simply travel with caravans... the are only during summer in Switzerland and right now mostly in the south of France or Italy.

But they do not belong on the street either...

Nor in soup kettle or toy factories. My response was to a post that seemed to say that homeless people need to be cared for medically, which I find strange.

You're a doctor, and you don't believe that mentally ill people are sick??!!

Sure, it's impractical, expensive and ultimately ineffective to keep them in hospital, but the long-term mentally ill (the clue is in the name) need medical care, including (in many cases) pharmaceutical intervention. Ideally this should be regular and delivered in an outpatient setting, with hospitalisation only for acute episodes.

The post in question pointed out that a large number of the homeless are mentally ill. Then the poster suggested that "the health system" should care for the mentally ill. A perfectly valid link, I'd say. She didn't suggest that hospitals should care for all homeless people.

Correct. Or at least a lot of the time, and even when they are medically ill, surely a hospital is not a correct treatment backdrop.

In any case, a lot of what we like to term mentally ill is actually mentally different. Not everyone can mentally tolerate the sorts of things we take for granted and that's why they choose to live on the street. I would argue that forcibly medicating these people is incorrect.

Oh dear. Do you really think that mentally ill people choose to live on the street? Or do you think that just maybe they're forced to, through circumstances -- such as their inability to hold down a job, social inadequacy, etc?

Is heart disease just a cardiac difference? People with cancer -- simply oncologically different?

I don't advocate forced medication of anybody (except convicted rapists). What I said is that pharmaceutical intervention can be a part of a program of medical care. I do believe that all mentally ill people should be offered supervised medical care. Mental illness is a disease, not an optional lifestyle.

It's important that you understand more about mental illness and what it is and what it isn't before you rush in with your lobotomy scalpel or whatever else you're attempted to do. A fair proportion of what constitutes mental illness is certainly a value judgement. Being different isn't being wrong and people need to take time to understand others. Mental illness isn't comparable with cancer etc



http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mental-illness/

I agree. It's a good thing, then, that I know as much as I do about a range of mental illnesses. How much do you know about what I know?

Given that a primary objective in epidemiology is to understand and reduce public health risks and consequently, to reduce public expenditure on healthcare, I can understand why you take the line you do on mental illness. But I'll take your comments with a large serving of salt. (Metaphorically, of course, as I don't fancy the risk of hypertension.)

OK, but what were your thoughts on the article I linked to? Don't you agree that there are different, valid ways of looking at mental illness?