Cabrio Teams, Primary Care for Homeless People In Belgium- Limburg
Authors: Kristoffels Theo 
Published: January 2024

Cabrio aims to prevent homelessness with a cross-sector, multidisciplinary and autonomous team that establishes contact with homeless people in their living environment in an outreach manner, offers customized support and connects to social facilities. The team aims to help homeless people in finding sustainable housing. In the Belgian province of Limburg there are 3 Cabrio teams that serve 5 local authorities. The welfare organisation CAW Limburg coordinates the 3 Cabrio teams.

Cabrio is active within the framework that is offered by the Flemish Action Plan to combat homelessness 2020-2024.

https://www.departementwvg.be/welzijn-en-samenleving/welzijnswerk/dak-en-thuisloosheid

Objectives:

•Making contact in the social environment of homeless people and building a close relationship with homeless people.

•Offer support in various life domains and realize a connection with services (network). Guarantee continuity in care.

•Strengthening the personal network of clients.

•Working on sustainable housing with social and other housing services.

•Working on connection through small-scale projects with a high level of participation of the target group. This is part of the socialization of care.

•Signalling structural barriers to local policy makers.

Methodical framework: Cabrio works in an outreaching and multidisciplinary way and uses methods from addiction care, counselling for people with psychological vulnerability and welfare work. Cabrio works from a shared vision of homelessness.

Outreach work: Counsellors contact clients in the public space, at their home or in the semi-public space (e.g. institution, facility) with a participative basic attitude. They focus on making a connection with 'distrustful' clients

Multidisciplinary work: To aim for care continuity the Cabrio team brings together different disciplines: general social work (CAW Limburg), addiction care (ZorGGroepZin), psychiatric home care (Beschut Wonen, Mobiel Herstelteam Psychiatrie), special youth care (CANO Pieter Simenon), outreach work (straathoekwerk).

•Expertise of supervisors is shared in the Cabrio team.

•Different perspectives and different expertise provides customized guidance.

•The collaboration and sharing of expertise strengthens the communication and trust between the client and the team and improves the follow-up of specific cases.

•Supervisors acquire new insights and methods in guiding homeless people to their own work setting.

Special methods: Harm reduction (or harm-limiting work), motivational interviewing, circle of behaviour change Prochaska and Diclemente, making quarters, guideline for dealing with ethical dilemmas, Housing First.

1.4.Registration by the Local Homeless Consultation

The local authorities organize a Local Homeless Consultation (LDO) in which various welfare organizations participate that have contacts with homeless people through their daily practice. The LDO has 3 tasks:

•Making an inventory of homeless people in the work area.

•Coordinating which service/counsellor takes care of the specific client.

•Tackling signals or structural barriers.

The LDO refers to the Cabrio team if the client:

•Does not have stable housing (see Ethos).

•Scores bad on several life domains and struggles with special problems (e.g. addiction, psychological vulnerability, medical problems, ...)

•Has a disrupted personal network or does not have or has a few contacts with care services (also called care avoiders).