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Give back the voice to a forgotten generation

2020-11-28T02:55:26.199Z


A conference organized by EL PAÍS, CincoDías and Cadena Ser addresses the challenges of caring for the elderly and the place they occupy in society


An older woman walks through the streets of Barcelona.NACHO DOCE / REUTERS

A change of model is needed in the care of the elderly that truly puts them at the center.

To them and their life projects.

This is one of the main conclusions of the conference held this Thursday, organized by EL PAÍS, CincoDías and Cadena Ser, under the title 'Older: the forgotten generation'.

The pandemic has hit the collective hard and has revealed the deficiencies of the residential system, but there were already structural problems before this crisis.

Like unwanted loneliness.

Or the need to promote currently underfunded home care.

The event, which has had the collaboration of Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, has been opened by the Secretary of State for Social Rights, Ignacio Álvarez, and has been structured in two round tables and an interview.

“The model has to change because people are going to demand newer and more personalized care models.

The success of the new residence must lie in the humanization of care ”, pointed out Yolanda María de la Fuente, professor of Social Work and Social Services at the University of Jaén, in the second of the debates, about care and support networks.

"Nursing homes sometimes lead to unwanted loneliness," he added.

"The fact that in a residence your autonomy, your intimacy and your privacy are in question and that sometimes you cannot maintain relations with outer space is one of the triggers of loneliness and depression", has pointed out Gloria Fernández-Mayoralas , PhD in Human Geography from the Complutense University of Madrid and scientific researcher at the Institute of Economy, Geography and Demography.

They feel that they lose autonomy and the free choice of their daily lives, the professor added, so the centers should be the last option.

The director of Attention to the Elderly and the Dependency in the Community of Madrid, Begoña Cortés, has coincided with her: “We put them in a whirlwind of rules and we leave them without the ability to decide on fundamental issues.

For this reason, the three speakers at this round table have highlighted the need to create a home dimension for those people who, due to dependency or severe loneliness, decide to live in a residence.

This has been one of the great debates during the health crisis caused by the covid.

Professional associations, unions and employers have claimed that the centers cannot become small hospitals, that medical care must be guaranteed through the health system.

The head of Dependency of the Community of Madrid has considered that medicalizing the residences is an obstacle when creating a comfortable environment for the elderly: “We run the risk that by sanitizing the residences too much we will turn them into hospitals, than we should run away.

We have to create comfortable spaces that the elderly can feel like home ”.

The experts have also emphasized that there are alternatives such as collaborative housing - the so-called

cohousing

- which provide greater integration of the elderly.

Although this is not the only solution.

"We have to move towards more modern models of comprehensive home care, services that use robotics, telemedicine and an important network of both social and health support," De la Fuente claimed.

The problem, they have pointed out, is that society does not place the elderly at the center of the design of the care system.

"We tend to talk about dependency, but sometimes we forget the promotion of autonomy, ensuring that the person has the capacities to decide about their own life," Cortés clarified.

You have to listen to the elderly.

"Spaces must be created where they can express the needs they have prior to dependency and afterwards, spaces for participation such as workshops and training," the Madrid general director clarified.

All three have agreed that it is essential to promote active aging for the elderly to develop in their environment.

"There is a certain social awareness that a person cannot contribute more when they leave their working life, but we have to count on them, to show us the way," Cortés pointed out.

De la Fuente has insisted on the need to promote an aging pedagogy.

The professor believes that old age should be understood as a stage of personal growth and development of personal autonomy to decide their own life project.

This results in an active stance with respect to society.

“They should not let the plans be designed by third parties.

There must be a militancy and they must become agents of social transformation ”, he pointed out.

For this, it is necessary to develop a network of resources beyond the dependency care system.

Something that is crucial to be able to combat unwanted loneliness.

In Spain, more than two million people over 65 live alone, according to the National Institute of Statistics.

"A support network must be created from the neighborhoods, from the pharmacist who is often a great support agent for the elderly, to the kiosks and the neighborhood in general," said Cortés.

In this way, the ability to detect situations of unwanted loneliness and dangers that the system does not normally register is made more efficient.

De la Fuente has stressed the importance of articulating cities that are friendlier to the elderly, a concept that the World Health Organization uses to refer to inclusive spaces with the community.

"If we have to grow old in a smart and humane city, that city must respond to the needs of citizens and, in this case, of the elderly," he said.

"It is very important for the city to establish meeting points where we can give and receive between generations and manage our life together."

And he has settled: "If it is done with the back of the elderly, indifference occurs and there is no clearer discrimination."

Against ageism

The day has hosted a first debate on the place of older people, in which it has been highlighted that there is a powerful ageism in society, that is, a social contempt for the elderly.

The speakers were Inés Ramos-Soler, doctor in Sociology and director of the research group Aging and Communication (AgeCOM);

Mónica Ramos, doctor in Social Anthropology, and José Augusto García, president of the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology.

They have agreed that giving the elderly the value they deserve as people is the fundamental pillar to build a more egalitarian society.

This is precisely what María Teresa Bazo, professor of Sociology at the University of the Basque Country, has claimed in an interview that closed the event: an ethic that values ​​old age.

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2020-11-28

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