Support to dependent elderly people

In 2001 the Health and Community Foundation started a programme for dependent elderly population that was a clear commitment to our intervention model in the search for an innovative approach to address the social and health problems of the elderly people, looking at their quality of life with dignity and claiming their public space and their active role in our society.

This new approach was based on principles such as autonomy, participation, individuality, social inclusion, independence, on-going support, etc. and therefore emphasized the global nature of each person, their rights, the need to be globally treated and the importance of issues related to personality, emotional wellbeing and interactions of people with their environment.

From then on, the area of support to dependent elderly population has run several welfare-oriented services (nursing homes, day centres, housing services, respite centres, homecare services, etc.) that provide quality services with intervention teams and multidisciplinary actitivities that are characteristic of this type of resource. After being peiodically revised, the current methodological approach is the result of our desire to improve the quality of the services offered. Our programmes attempt to find a balance between technical improvement, excellent management and feasibility of the intervention.

At present the average number of full-time professionals working in the various services that make up this area of activity is around 1.000 workers. This team of professionals has the average annual support of over 250 volunteers and more than a hundred students in their internship training period.