Vidas

Vidas is a non-profit association without political or religious ties, founded in Milan in 1982 by Giovanna Cavazzoni. It offers complete health and social services assistance to the terminally ill in their homes and at the hospice center Casa Vidas: hospital stay and day hospice.

In the last 32 years, 29,000 patients have been helped by their services (up to 160 every day) in Milan, Monza, and the surrounding towns, with teams of paid doctors, nurses, personal hygiene and social assistants, pyschologists, physiotherapists, experts in pain therapy and palliative care. They were helped by trained, generous volunteers. Every year 1600 patients are cared for, making it the highest rate of assistance in Europe among services of its kind.

“Casa Vidas” Hospice was opened in 2006 to give free help to those who live alone or are unable to live at home because of inadequate social-environmental conditions there. On the first floor it provides a day hospice service, geared towards self-sufficient patients, with doctors' offices, a physiotherapy studio, along with a space for psychological/social consulting and leisure activities (art and music therapy, pet therapy).

Fondazione Vidas offers a rich educational program (seminars, round tables, conventions and publications) as well to make the public more aware of its underlying philosophy: giving rights and dignity back to the individual, right up to the end.