The department Servicios Sociales de Xàbia has taken stock of the first year of the community project Radars, designed to reduce unwanted loneliness and the risk of isolation in elderly people who live alone or who lack family support.
The first phase of this plan, which involves the involvement of different sectors and collaborating agents, has been the location of the most vulnerable. In total, 78 cases have been detected, the great majority of British origin, and to a lesser extent, Germans. Also, although in a more minority way, there are of French, Belgian and Spanish origin.
Regarding 78 localized cases, Social Services has assessed them individually and incorporated each one into the most appropriate program: from the home help service, telecare, menjars to home, Dependency law, economic and individualized assistance, in addition to offer socio-educational support, volunteering and accompaniment, monitoring through the project itself Radars or help in the management of documentation for other social resources.
The detections have been made mainly through the Local Police, Health Center and the Red Cross, although there are also cases that have been notified at a particular level of citizens and neighbors close to the users, achieving one of the main objectives of the program that is "strengthen co-responsibility between public administration and civil society ", explains the councilor Pepa Gisbert.
Gisbert recalls that the philosophy of this project is to make society aware of how to act as a radar in front of this problem: being alert to any change in routine, behavior or appearance, which may indicate that someone needs some kind of help.
One of the main objectives of this program for 2019 is to launch all the services linked to volunteering, such as the telephone tracking platform. For this, they ask people "That have a sensitive and respectful look towards the elderly" to join and contribute to make life more pleasant and easy for others.
For more information you can write to radarseniors@xabia.es, contact through the 96.579.41.42 telephone or go personally to the Department of Social Services by appointment.
Radars program
Radars it was activated a year ago in response to the aging of the population in the municipality of Xàbia, as more and more elderly people live alone or isolated, with difficulties, or do not have support networks. The two main difficulties of this program are geographically - in Xàbia, the population is very scattered, making contact between them difficult, many of them live in residential areas of chalets, located in beach, mountain, and urban areas. language. And is that many of the elderly are of foreign origin and do not speak Spanish, interact in small groups of the same nationality and have little contact with social and public resources in the area, thus increasing the risk of isolation and loneliness. These people also do not have many support networks, since the extended family usually resides abroad.
