Marián Franquet, Councilor for Social Action of the Cabildo de Tenerife and head of the Insular Institute for Social and Socio-Health Care (IASS), has had to manage a very difficult mandate, marked by the pandemic and its consequences, in which, from the Overnight, we had to act quickly to avoid as many deaths as possible, especially in nursing homes for the elderly and people with disabilities. Franquet believes that the management in these four years has been good, she values the team of professionals who carry out a very complex day-to-day in social care and feels that many challenges lie ahead. The implementation of a new care model for the elderly has been, he says, a very difficult transition, “with a lot of headwinds and a lot of noise”, but whose results are already reaching their recipients, in large part, thanks to the Connect Seniors program.
-These four years have been very complex, how do you assess them?
“I believe that the pandemic valued what a public administration means for the sustenance of the island’s social fabric. And it tested many of us who entered to manage areas with conditions that changed radically in a moment. We had no references on how to do things. But we got over it. Canary Islands as a whole. On this island there was never a shortage of masks in the social health centers. No gloves. We had our warehouses full and we were able to show solidarity and give PPE to entities and associations that they did not have, we strengthened the entities so that they could care for people in their homes, which was where they were having the worst time. I have the feeling of having given everything. As a result of this pandemic and what we learned from it, the Conecta Mayores program emerged, a new care model designed by and for the elderly.”
-Tell me about the ‘Connect Seniors’ program.
“It is a program that starts from a very clear base: listening to older people, knowing their reality and, from there, empowering them to decide what they want to do, how they want to do it and when. We began by entrusting the University of La Laguna with a study that told us how much older population there is on the Island, where they live and what their profiles are. This has allowed us to design a program that includes a whole network of services and care for a diverse population, which demands to be taken into account, who wants to decide how to live this stage of their lives. And with that mandate that the elderly have given us, from the Cabildo we propose guided tours to get to know the island because it is what they have requested; a social tourism program that this year will take more than a thousand people to know Cantabria, because it is the place where they wanted to go; an Office for the Elderly, in the center of La Laguna, to meet their requirements, which was a historical demand of the group; training programs throughout this world of technology to learn how to use social networks and send a wasap to their grandchildren; leisure, health and free time activities that we have already done with all the municipalities, with more than 10,000 elderly people… Conecta Mayores has the clear objective of weaving an insular network so that all people can be an active part of the society in which they live ”.
-The opposition, especially CC, blames you for the disappearance of Ansina, the program for the elderly that they promoted and that you replaced with the ‘Conecta Mayores’…
“CC is lying. In politics it is normal to be criticized, although it is also true that there are limits that should never be crossed. Ansina was a valid program for a certain group of people who liked a certain type of activities. And that was fine. What happens is that COVID arrived. The contract with Ansina ended administratively in the middle of the pandemic and it was necessary to decide whether to renew it or not. And we wanted to make a more ambitious program, we didn’t want to stay only in the craft workshops and that kind of issues, which are great, but they don’t serve to cover the concerns of many other older people who want to do other things, like visiting a museum, go on routes or practice some type of sport. So it seemed more convenient for us not to renew it, since it cost millions of euros, and to start preparing, instead, what would later be the current Conecta Mayores program”.
-Well, the Canarian Coalition assures that you left the elderly at the worst of the pandemic…
“Yes, I have been listening to that argument for a long time. And I say again that they are lying. What we did from the PSOE during the pandemic was to work with the people who were having the worst time. In the first place, with the people who were in nursing homes and those who were at home having a very bad time. Tenerife was one of the Spanish territories that best managed the situation. Also, the clubs were closed. In fact, they were like this until the end of the pandemic. Until last Friday, the WHO did not lift the state of health emergency. In the penultimate Christmas, we continued with capacity restrictions in family celebrations. But Coalición Canaria says that we had to do activities. So that? To put the elderly at risk? The only thing that can be blamed on this Cabildo is that it has been very cautious. That we have gone step by step, depending on the pandemic situation, protecting the most vulnerable people. And when we have seen the opportunity, we have restarted the activities”.
-How is the relationship with the associations of the elderly?
“Its permanent. In 2022 we granted one million euros to the island’s town halls to promote, in coordination with the senior clubs, leisure and free time activities. It was a good initiative that sometimes did not reach all the people who could have participated, so this year we have directly allocated this same subsidy, amounting to one million euros, to clubs and associations for the elderly, so that they are the ones Decide what activities you want to do. When I arrived at the Social Action area, the first thing President Pedro Martín told me was that we had to listen to the elderly, see what they need. It is one thing to speak to them with affection and another to infantilize them. Everything we do is well measured and worked. We believe that the policy for the elderly deserves a lot of reflection”.
-And before you had not made a reflection on the policy of the elderly?
“I don’t believe it. We didn’t even know how many seniors we had on the Island or where they were. Nor which were the oldest municipalities. They had not bothered to do this work. This Cabildo, on the contrary, has collaborated in the creation of the Chair for the Elderly of the ULL. Because we also have to make a projection of the future, know how the population will evolve in the coming years in order to take measures. We have also promoted an Elderly Participation Plan. The situation has changed a lot. My grandmother, who died at the age of 62, was an old lady. My mother, who is now going to be 77 years old, is an intellectually young and active person. Politics has to respond to this change in reality. But you have to analyze and reflect beforehand. And that is what we are promoting from the Cabildo. In the coming months and within the Participatory Plan for the Elderly, we are going to hold more than 130 workshops in all the municipalities of the Island to give a voice to those over 65 and promote actions and activities that respond to the proposals and demands they put forward.” .
-One of the challenges of that aging that you recount is how to care for the elderly who are in a situation of dependency. The needs are many and the resources are always insufficient…
“We have to talk about different types of places. There are the residential ones, which are those of those people who cannot stay at home and need a residence or a day center. And we have created 610 places of this type during the mandate, 436 residential and 174 day care. But there are also other types of services, since there are elderly or dependent people who do not want to leave their home. That is why we have launched something as simple as telecare. In total there are 2,070 places. There are 1,000 people now in Tenerife who feel safe at home, with a bracelet or necklace so that if anything happens to them, they can be attended to quickly. We have just launched the specialized home help service, with 240 beneficiaries who receive the services of physiotherapists, speech therapists, social workers, various professionals who will go home to care for them. So that they can receive the attention and professional care they need without having to abandon their environment and the love that their loved ones give them”.
-In what situation is the construction of residential places?
“During this term we have launched a social and health infrastructure program that was quite chaotic when we arrived. In 2019, that is, two years after the Infrastructure Plan was approved, there was not even a planning and organization to be able to execute it, which forced us to start from scratch in many cases, devoting many hours to solving multiple incidents of an urban nature. and administrative. The expansion of the Santa Úrsula center, the new La Victoria center, the reactivation of the works at the Guía de Isora center or Camp La Cuesta are some of the novelties this year. In total, there are up to 12 socio-sanitary centers that are either already under construction or will be put out to tender throughout this year”.
