Organiser: Roure Foundation.
Collaborating organisation: Ramon Molinas Foundation.
Dates of implementation: 01/01/2017 – 31/12/2017.
The Día Prisba Centre, a day care service for socioeconomically vulnerable elderly people
The Día Prisba Centre is a day care service run by the Roure Foundation which offers several comprehensive, organised and coordinated actions with the aim of looking after socioeconomically elderly people who don’t have a support network, and are residents of Ciutat Vella in Barcelona. Three dozen people benefit from this scheme which throughout 2017 will have the support of the Ramon Molinas Foundation.
The centre looks after elderly people with various personal and social issues that require a personalized care plan. The Roure Foundation is committed to a care plan centred around each individual. Personalised and based on a comprehensive approach, and where the user is the at the centre. The plan encourages the recuperation and maintenance of personal autonomy in elderly people, working towards conserving their link to the social dynamic of the area.
To guarantee the service functions well and provides the highest quality services possible, the Día Prisba Centre employs 10 professionals including three elderly healthcare providers, a nurse, a physiotherapist, a social worker and 15 volunteers. A total of 25 people look after the day care’s users, who organise activities designed to encourage participation and motivation.
With the intention of making Día Prisba Centre as supportive as possible, activities encourage participation in the local community. Thanks to collaboration with other organisations and the area’s local schools, elderly people can forge links with the children and young people of the neighbourhood, and enjoy activities related to traditional neighbourhood and town festivals.
The centre responds to the needs of disadvantaged elderly people
The profile of the users of the Día Prisba Centre is very similar. The centre responds to the needs of elderly people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged who don’t have a family network or ties. The users of the scheme are 90 years old on average and suffer from cognitive impairment associated with age, disorders that they cannot control because they are unable to manage their own medicine, or because they are experiencing difficulties getting a correct diagnosis. For this reason, the assistance provided by the Roure Foundation is both immediate and urgent.
The users of the Día Prisba Centre are people recommended by social services, the Primary Care Centres or by other organisations. The people who use the service pay a nominal monthly fee according to their financial status and depending on their vulnerability, as outlined above.
The Roure Foundation, social action in Ciutat Vella
The Roure Foundation has worked Ciutat Vella, Barcelona, in the neighbourhoods of Sant Pere, Santa Caterina and La Ribera since 1992. With around 25 years of experience, the organisation understands the local area and the difficulties experienced by its inhabitants: the scarcity of housing, the aging population and the socioeconomic difficulties that people face every day. Given these circumstances, the objective of the foundation is to alleviate the basic needs of elderly people with economic difficulties and their families with its immediacy, solidarity and teamwork.
Apart from the Día Prisba Centre, the Roure Foundation carries out a series of actions and projects. To provide food relief to disadvantaged groups, the organisation organises El Rebost Roure and Àpats en Família. While the El Rebost Roure provides food staples, Àpats en Família ensures a daily meal to people who cannot cook because they either don’t have the money, or because they don’t have a home whatsoever. The Roure Foundation also offers a shower service for people who need it.
The Roure Foundation also provides a support programme, in parallel to the Día Prisba Centre, which guarantees that elderly people can continue living in their homes with dignity. The organisation also has a charity shop for the neighbours with financial difficulties where they can buy second hand, quality clothing at very cheap prices. Lastly, the Roure Foundation has a charity laundry, a washing service for social organisations, companies and individuals whose aim is to promote social and labour integration.
Responding to current needs with a view to future demographic changes
A study by the U.S. Census Bureau, an institution whose principal objective is to provide quality data about the population and the economy, recently warned about the growth of the percentage of the population who are older than 65. In 2012, when the global population passed seven billion people, 562 million people (around 8%) were 65 years old or more. Three years later, in 2015, this section of the population grew to 55 million people, reaching 8.5% of the total of the population of the planet. Keeping in mind the falling birth rate, the growth in life expectancy and the population pyramid, the agency predicts that the percentage of people over 65 will make up 16% of the world population by 2050. Europe is particularly significant, where the percentage will rise to 27.8% with respect to the total population.
At the same time, the Institute of Economic Studies stated that Spain has the third-highest number of people over 80 years old in Europe, behind Italy and Greece. The publication, created from the data from Eurostat’s paper Population: Structure Indicators, reveals that the average number of inhabitants over this age range has increased from 3.5% in 2001 to 5.1% in 2014. According to the projections extracted from the figures from the European office of statistics, the percentage could increase to 12.3% by the year 2080.
The old references denote that society faces a demographic change which requires important change in the areas of shared residences, integration and the wellbeing of elderly people. Changes which should help to alleviate current problems such as loneliness, the scarcity of resources and the lack of family support, with a view towards the increasing percentage of the population that will find themselves in this situation in the future.
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