Our values

Respecting  the values, dignity, autonomy and freedom to choose of each person — that’s what the Community Clinic is all about ! Both citizens and staff work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect to respond in the best way possible to the needs of the users of the Clinic’s services.

Another value is in really listening to people. This means believing that it’s the people going through difficult situations who are in the best position to decide what type of treatment or assistance they need.

Two other values are key to the Clinic’s way of working, namely empowerment and solidarity. We believe that people are able to learn about and understand their problems. They can then “take charge” of their situation. This value of empowerment applies not only to individual problems but also to those problems related to health issues that the Point faces. This is solidarity and empowerment at a community level.

At the Clinic, we also try to get away from the idea that the “doctor always knows best “. We believe that the user (the patient) knows what’s going on. After all, it’s happening to them!

So it only makes sense that they should be full partners, along with the staff, in making decisions about their own health.

Respect for the dignity of the person: At the Clinic, everything is done to ensure that each person finds respect for their dignity and autonomy.

Respect for autonomy and citizen participation: The Clinic promotes popular education and the management by citizens of their individual, collective and community health challenges.

Equity, solidarity and social justice: The Clinic intervenes in a perspective of solidarity and social justice by developing the capacity of people to act individually and collectively on their living conditions and health (empowerment). The Clinic also works to demystify professional power and share knowledge between healthcare workers and neighborhood citizens.

Collaboration, partnership and community support: It is with mutual respect that the citizens and employees of the Clinic collaborate and work in multidisciplinarity or interdisciplinarity to respond as adequately as possible to the needs expressed. In addition, since 1968, the Clinic has worked closely with citizens and neighborhood organizations to bring people together and mobilize them, defend their rights and find solutions to individual and collective problems. The Clinic has repeatedly demonstrated its roots in the community through its democratic civic life, but also by joining forces with community stakeholders to define and carry out its projects. Throughout its history, the Clinic has contributed to the establishment of several resources and always collaborates with community groups to act directly on the social determinants of health.

The Clinic is proud to support Joyce’s Principe.

The Clinic acts upon the social determinants of health

For the Clinic it is clear – overall conditions of life and especially social and economic conditions are the most important determinants of people’s health. As a centre for citizen mobilisation, the Clinic has always taken its responsabilities seriously, working for social justice through social change, defending the social and economic rights of citizens while working closely with other community organizations.

“ The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, including the health system. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels, which are themselves influenced by policy choices. The social determinants of health are mostly responsible for health inequities – the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and between countries. ”

Closing the gap in a generation : Health equity through action on the social determinants of health. Commission on Social Determinants of health – final report. World Health Organisation 2008.