SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Dec. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Councilor for Social Action of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Marián Franquet, and the manager of the Hospital and Psychopedagogical Center of San Juan de Dios, Juan Manuel de León, visited this Wednesday the new resources put in place to guarantee people’s quality of life older people with intellectual disabilities or behavioral problems, and also those who, even when they are younger, have begun a process of deterioration and premature aging.
The main objective is to promote and promote the active aging of this group through various services, depending on the life experience and the degree of independence of each person.
The IASS manager, Yazmina León Martínez; the head of the unit of the IASS Dependency, Beatriz Durán and the psycho-pedagogical director of the center, María de La Rosa.
As explained by the councilor Marián Franquet, “it is a novel initiative with which the Cabildo and the hand of San Juan De Dios seek to attend to a new profile, such as that of the elderly with disabilities and behavioral disorders, who previously did not existed because the life expectancy of this group was lower and they have special needs that must be met”.
In his opinion, “our purpose is to give them the necessary support so that without leaving their environment and within their possibilities of autonomy and decision-making capacity they can have as normal a life as possible.”
In this same sense, the psycho-pedagogical director of the center, María de La Rosa, explained that the idea is to “accompany people with intellectual disabilities in the different stages of life and put at their disposal those instruments that allow them to do so with the maximum levels of well-being, health and integration”.
To this end, part of the already existing infrastructure in San Juan de Dios has been used to create new services, financed by the Institute for Social and Socio-Health Care of Tenerife (IASS), which cater to different needs in a specialized manner.
One of the new services is the active aging unit, with capacity for around 20 places, in which older people with disabilities are provided with new tools for an active, healthy life and continuous interaction with their environment and with society, explained María de la Rosa.
In parallel, and for those people who are more independent, the hospital center has set up two houses with support, with 5 and 6 beds respectively, in which they live together and where they carry out daily tasks that help them train in daily life skills and reach the highest degree of development.
FINANCING AGREEMENT FOR 1.7 MILLION
These new services, for which the IASS allocates an annual financing of 1.7 million euros, reinforce the collaboration that San Juan de Dios already maintains with the Island Council of Tenerife and with the Government of the Canary Islands in the provision of services for people with dependency and which contemplates the management of 68 places, financed through the Dependency Agreement.
Currently, this hospital center is in charge of managing 10 day care places and 58 residential care places, of which 12 places are for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
All the positions managed by the entity are for people with great support needs, who have an intellectual disability and associated behavioral disorders.
