The president of the IMAS has recalled that the extension of the hours of care demonstrates the commitment of the Consell de Mallorca for this resource, which has already served more than a thousand dependents at home.
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SAID celebrates its seventh anniversary
A total of 1,036 people attended since 2017 in nearly 40 municipalities in Mallorca through the Comprehensive Home Care Service (SAID), a resource of the Consell de Mallorca that has recently been extended to 365 days a year. These are some of the figures highlighted by the councillor for Social Welfare and president of the Mallorcan Institute of Social Affairs (IMAS), Guillermo Sánchez, during the celebration of the seventh anniversary of this resource, which offers care and accompaniment to dependent people in their own homes.
“We said we would provide care for SAID users every day of the week and we have done so. We have reinforced the staff of this service to increase care by 4,000 more hours per month, reaching 17,000 hours per month, and thus respond to a historical demand of the users and their families, who needed to have this resource also on weekends and holidays,” explained the councillor. “We are working to guarantee the well-being of the most vulnerable people, but also to do so while respecting their wishes and their desire to enjoy quality ageing close to their loved ones,” he concluded.
The IMAS today commemorated the seven years of operation of the SAID in a ceremony at the Municipal Theatre of Artà, which was also attended by the Director General of Care for Dependency of the Government of the Balearic Islands, Pedro Codes, the island director of Community Care and Promotion of Personal Autonomy, Catalina Maria Mascaró, representatives of the municipalities of the Levante area where the service is operational, as well as professionals, users and family members, among others.
Along the same lines as the councillor, the island director pointed out that “currently a dozen people are attended to by SAID professionals on weekends and holidays. We have started with the highest priority cases, but this figure will slowly increase”. Mascaró also recalled that the SAID, “as well as guaranteeing professional and personalised care, also favours conciliation and coordination between all community resources and thus avoids situations of risk or unwanted loneliness”.
Precisely, the Levante region, where the event was held, is “one of the areas where the SAID has been strengthened the most with inter-group meetings between users from different municipalities, as well as intergenerational activities with the youngest. We want to encourage their involvement in community life and, for this reason, we have taken another step forward”, he explained.
In this sense, Manuela Gil, one of the auxiliary care technicians in direct care, emphasised that the empathy between the professional team and the person they are caring for is the key to the success of this IMAS service: “a very strong emotional bond is established and there is a mutual exchange. We accompany them and support them in everything they need and, in return, every day, they give us love, wisdom and experiences from which we learn a great deal”.
SAID currently serves 460 people in 39 municipalities in Mallorca. All of them receive professional and personalised attention, adapted to their needs, but also to their customs and philosophy of life.