He Mentally Disabled Care Center (CAMP) La Cuesta will increase its capacity by 30 residential beds to 70. It will be when the expansion works, which are about to go out to tender, will restart – they were paralyzed in 2020. This was explained to the Association of Mothers and Fathers by the president of the Cabildo de TenerifePedro Martín, and the island councilor for Social Action, Marián Franquet.
Pedro Martín highlighted the updating of the prices of the material that will change the cost of the project, since it contemplates a significant increase in the budget with respect to the initial one, going from 5 to 8.4 million euros, 68%. With this, it is a matter of undertaking with quality guarantees these new services to be incorporated into the CAMP to care for people with intellectual disabilities. The five million were assigned to the first project, approved in 2016.
The manager of the Institute of Social and Socio-sanitary Care of Tenerife (IASS), Yazmina de Lionin addition to the president and vice president of AMPA, Luz María Morín and Damián Meliá, respectively, as well as the association’s secretary, David Peña.
Martín stressed that this significant increase in the budget “It will serve to undertake with quality guarantees the new services and common spaces that are going to be launched, with which it will contribute to improving the quality of life of the users”. The tender for the project will include measures to avoid assigning the works to an abnormally low offer that makes it impossible to carry out the works for the contracted price, as already happened with the first project, in 2018.
68%
budget growth
The budget for the CAMP increases from the 5 million euros assigned to the first project, approved in 2016, to 8.4 million, which represents an increase of 68%.
new places
Franquet recalled that among the improvements being contemplated is the provision of 30 new residential places, in addition to another 20 that already exist and 20 for day care. This will allow resources to be expanded to provide full-time care as needed. The project includes the incorporation of a therapeutic cup as well as new spaces such as the kitchen, laundry or outdoor areas, suppressed in the previous one to lower costs.
Coexistence units
The counselor added that “the execution favors the creation of coexistence units, which allow continuity to the new, more personalized care model that is being promoted from the insular area of Social Action.” In this sense, Marián Franquet recalled that all these improvements have been designed in accordance with the needs, demands and suggestions raised by the families of the beneficiaries.
The beggining
The work began in November 2018 with the aim of expanding the current CAMP La Cuesta and its construction is located in the area of Volcán de La Corona and Volcán Las Arenas streets, in The Sobradillo, in the southwest of Santa Cruz, on a plot of 4,246 square meters. This building had a budget of 3.8 million euros and had a completion period of 21 months. The initial idea was that the work could be finished by the middle of the second semester of 2020, something that did not take place.
down
The problems arose at the end of 2018, when the previous island government awarded the project to a company that submitted an economic offer 23% lower than the bidding price, which made it impossible to carry out the work. After the expected execution period of 21 months, the current Cabildo team began negotiations to mutually agree on the termination of the work contract, of which less than a third had been executed. In addition, it was agreed to urgently start the process to hire the drafting of the new modified project and resume, as soon as possible, the work to adapt the center to the demands and needs.
“Where will they go when we’re gone?”
This is the recurring question of the fathers and mothers of the people housed in the CAMP La Cuesta and it is extensible to the relatives of those who suffer from mental disabilities. The Cabildo de Tenerife tries to guarantee an institutional response and that was the purpose of the meeting with its representatives. The insular councilor of Social Action, Marián Franquet, sums it up with this sentence: “This is an essential project for fathers and mothers who are in charge of people with intellectual disabilities and live with the uncertainty of what will happen when they cannot assume your attention”. | JDM
