More than 260 hours of programming per month that will reach 47 senior citizens’ associations in the capital and around 600 people. That is the objective of Santa Cruz Vital, the program promoted by the Social Action area of the capital’s City Council. This project, which came to an end last October, will resume this March after the Governing Council of the Municipal Institute of Social Care (IMAS) has awarded the new contract to the company Podium Gestión Integral, for 643,627 euros for the next three years.
The purpose of the contract is to carry out services aimed at promoting the participation of the elderly in the municipality in activities that improve their skills and abilities as well as a healthy lifestyle.
As explained by the Councilor for Social Action, Rosario González, “the main objectives of Santa Cruz Vital are the permanence in the environment of the elderly, the prevention of dependency, the fight against loneliness and the creation of support networks between groups of equals”, anchors that are sustained “in activities that have to do with 7 axes that go through the revitalization of community networks, general well-being workshops, activities in Las Teresitas, walking around you, ICT training, workshops online and face-to-face talks.
The mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, clarifies that “this project for the elderly in the municipality aims to cover that need, that right that our elders have to enjoy a time of retirement and old age in the most dignified way possible.”
The municipal councilor adds that “in this way, we continue to bet on the activity of the groups, which are the strength of this population, at the same time that we generate contact and synergies among the elderly, which helps even more to avoid situations of loneliness, perhaps the biggest problem among the elderly in the municipality”.
Associations
From associations, such as that of San Albino de Tíncer, in the Southwest district, its president Edilia Hernández, admits that since the program ended last October there is not a day in which they do not ask the City Council when the activities start again. “We constantly call and they tell us that they were awaiting adjudication,” she explains. In the case of this association, “we did memory exercises, and also gymnastics. We also had cultural visits, meetings for the elderly…”.
“Right now -he continued- we were participating about 40 people a day, although in the association we are 88 members, what happens is that there are people who cannot participate or simply do not want to do so”.
Edilia insists that they miss the program a lot, so much so that “we even suggested doing it on our own.”
According to the evaluation made by the IMAS on the program, 88% of those surveyed admit significant improvements on an emotional level, 86% point to improvements on a cognitive level, and 76% have noticed improvements in physical appearance.
In general, the degree of satisfaction of the elderly people surveyed is very good since the places and spaces where the activities are carried out and the hours that are available have been taken into account. Regarding the contents, 47 people out of the 50 people surveyed are very satisfied.
