Organizer: Aspanias (Association of parents of people with mental retardation).

Collaborative institution: Ramon Molinas Foundation.

Implementation schedule: 01/01/2014 – 31/12/2014.

Nine scholarships to promote the social integration of children and adolescents that suffer from some intellectual disability or development problems

The Ramon Molinas Foundation has subsidised nine grants to families in financial difficulties, enabling them to benefit from the therapeutic care service (SAT) of the Aspanias association in Barcelona. The programme promotes the social integration of children and youths aged 18 or under who have some type of intellectual disability or developmental problem.

The grants, which have a unit cost of 2,543 Euros, envisage session vouchers including a welcome visit, weekly therapy for one year, two follow-up visits with a neuro-paediatrician and an epicritic report.

A committee made up of a social worker, the technical director of SAT and the manager of Aspanias selected the most suitable families out of all the applicants. The selection process was shown on the web page of Aspanias.

The services of the SAT

The Therapeutic Care Service consists of five professionals coordinated by a technical director. Aspanias has a psychologist specialized in children and adolescents, a speech therapist, a psychologist specialized in adults, a physiotherapist, and a music therapist.

At the center, the psychological service is offered both to children and adolescents as well as to their families. The main lines of work of this service are learning disorders, attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity (TDAH), behaviour difficulties, and emotional and socialization problems.

Besides, at the SAT services of speech therapy, in order to treat speech and language disorders, social care services, physiotherapy and music therapy sessions, are offered.

Aspanias, an awarded association with a long history

A group of parents concerned about the needs of their children created the association Aspanias in 1960. Their aim was to reach the standardization and social integration of those people with an intellectual disability. For more than 50 years of history, the entity has worked to satisfy the needs of this collective, from children to seniors.

The association, that assists 400 people annually, was declared of public utility in 1970 and the Generalitat de Catalunya awarded it with the Creu de Sant Jordi on December the 3^rd, 1987.

The Therapeutic Care Service was born in 1997 as an emerging need in order to assist children and adolescents at school stage with different difficulties or disorders in their development. A few months ago, Aspanias opened a new center to offer this service. The Ramon Molinas Foundation supported their rehabilitation investing a third of the 90,000 euros that the works cost.

Besides this service, Aspanias has a network of supervised homes, a Center of Development and Early Care (CDIAP), where children from 0 to 6 years old are assisted, a service of psychological attention for adults, a leisure service, and a guidance and information service.

Nine grants so that families with no resources are not excluded from the service

As a result of the current economic context, Aspanias observed that the number of sessions requested by families had considerably reduced since 2009. Furthermore, the number of cases of interrupted treatment in children and youths with serious social disorders had increased. The consequences of not providing continuity in these processes are dramatic. Children and youths are becoming bogged down, creating a barrier that increasingly worsens until they reach adulthood.

To avoid this situation, the Ramon Molinas Foundation decided to subsidise nine annual grants for families with financial difficulties, in order to provide specialised and suitable care for their children. The aim was that the beneficiaries, through intense work and the necessary tools, would improve their quality of life in order to be able to face the inevitable challenges of maturity.

Links of interest:

Aspanias website.