Santa Cruz will dedicate the entire month of October to the elderly in the municipality, doubling the activities that have been carried out so far with this group. A group of people who, as confirmed by the Councilor for Social Attention of Santa Cruz, Rosario González, “is being strongly affected by the crisis, with a growing number of elderly people in high social vulnerability.” According to IMAS data, the program, through which these people are cared for, has already registered 1,718 who need accompaniment and supervision by social services. “Until the month of August, 335 new cases had been incorporated into the program, while throughout last year we added 467. For this reason, we estimate that, at the end of the year, the number of new incorporations will exceed that of last year, which shows the high vulnerability that the group is suffering ”, he explained.
According to the councilor, loneliness is the main factor that is affecting older people the most. “Most are people who live alone and who we support with the management of aid if they need it, with help at home or tele-assistance and with support in everything they may need, calling them from time to time and monitoring them,” explains the mayor.
“We have also dealt with very old couples living alone or very old mothers with disabled children. The cases are diverse, but the important thing is that we are arriving ”, he said.
Most of the people who are part of the program of care for the vulnerable elderly reach it through the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS). “We are coordinated with them. When they detect in the consultations people who are in need of this type of help, they notify us and we enter ”, explains the councilor.
The City Council yesterday took stock of the first year of Santa Cruz Vital, the program dedicated to energizing the elderly. “Up to now, more than 600 people have participated in the different activities that we started a year ago and that have already reached 47 associations for the elderly,” explained the mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez.
For the councilor, taking care of the well-being of the elderly “is a moral debt” with those who “helped build this city, which is now in the conditions they dreamed of, and their work contributed to achieving it.” Like the councilor, she emphasized the need to fight against the loneliness of the elderly, defending that programs such as Santa Cruz Vital help in that fight. “For this reason, we are going to increase the contribution for this program by 140,000 euros so that we will already put it out to tender by increasing the offer and the services that we will provide to the elderly,” he said.
Among the activities that will be promoted during this month of the elderly are the guided visits to the Carnival House and the Palmetum, as well as the Guimerá Theater and other emblematic places of the city. All this thanks to the involvement of different municipal areas.
