Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

A people creates their care model.

  • Zestoa is a municipality located in the Urola valley of Gipuzkoa. It has a population of 3,800. Since 2019, the surveillance network is being developed: all the professional resources of the municipality have been coordinated and the road to a community model of mutual care between the zestoars has begun. The San Juan Foundation is working in the direction and coordination of this project being carried out in the City Hall. Zestoa has a very suitable starting point for the municipality to design the care model it wants: the San Juan residence of the elderly, managed by a public foundation and with a family that owns the Gisasola residence. Both are free from the claws of big business.
San Juan egoitzako bizilagunak eta herriko ikastetxeko ikasleak astelehenetik ostiralera egoten dira elkarrekin. Zaintza ez dute zahartzaroarekin soilik lotu nahi eta belaunaldien arteko harremanak sendotzea da helburuetako bat. Argazkia: Dani Blanco / AR
San Juan egoitzako bizilagunak eta herriko ikastetxeko ikasleak astelehenetik ostiralera egoten dira elkarrekin. Zaintza ez dute zahartzaroarekin soilik lotu nahi eta belaunaldien arteko harremanak sendotzea da helburuetako bat. Argazkia: Dani Blanco / ARGIA CC BY-SA

We are with Saioa Lasa and Joseba Illarramendi in an office of the San Juan residence. Lasa is a psychologist and director of residence Illarramendi. They are also the coordinators of the monitoring network being carried out in the locality. As they talk about the headquarters, Lasa gives the key to understanding the uniqueness of the headquarters: "This is the decision point of the San Juan Foundation, here we meet and this is where it is decided." It relates to the table of the office where we sat all three. The headquarters of San Juan is managed by the foundation of the same name, it is a private non-profit, but public entity. A councillor from the PNV and another from EH Bildu, and a representative of the workers, residents and citizens, presided over by the mayor, participate in the discussion table. The residence has 40 places, it serves fifteen people in the day center and eight in the sheltered homes. Firefighters have about 60 workers and do not have any kind of subcontracted service. Although there are few, there are public offices in Gipuzkoa, but the usual thing is that management is allocated to large companies, so the decisions of the headquarters are taken by the companies. Illarramendi has made it clear that one of the keys to the foundation is independence: "We have freedom to work because the decision-making center is in the village." San Juan's headquarters is a rare avis. This does not mean acting on its own. The Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa is working on the Zaindu HerriLab initiative to promote local care ecosystems. In this space they are reflecting on the new models of care and Zestoa is found in this initiative through the Surveillance Network of Zestoa.En the

people are located the residence "superior" and the "inferior". The San Juan residence is "top" and the "bottom" is that of Gisasola. This is a small 38-seater residence, privately owned, owned by a family of Zestoa, although they do not reside in the village.

It is no coincidence that the report begins to explain the care network of Zestoa and elaborates an X-ray of the two locations of the town. Illarramendi thus summarizes the importance of the characteristics of both sites: "In terms of care, the conditions for a country project are met." They both look at the people, they have a lot of freedom to make decisions, and they bet on a community model.


In 2019, the
San Juan residence and the 3Z partnership ignited the fire to launch the surveillance network. Both were reflecting on the community care model and presented themselves in the village. Then came the city hall and launched the Izarraitz project, thanks to the subsidy of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa. Saioa Lasa and Joseba Illarramendi of the San Juan Foundation are in charge of managing and coordinating the project. There are several officers on the Monitoring Bureau: The mayor of the City Hall, a councillor of the PNV and another of EH Bildu, and a Social Services worker; two general coordinators of the project; the two headquarters; the educator of the cooperative Zabalduz; the Association of Retirees; the Zaindu Zestoan Association (3Z), Osakigazza; the sports center; the school representative; the nine. The intention is to bring more agents to the table. In this project we have emphasized the importance of the characteristics of the residences, so that the agents are a fundamental pillar if the community care model to be carried out in the locality is to be thought and channeled by the people.

What they have done, what they want to do. The Model
has to be invented. Strategic Plan 2023 to 2026 is currently being implemented. They have four lines of work: the early detection of situations of vulnerability (unselected solitude), deciding how and where to take care of them, developing care services to vulnerable situations and working on the viability of the project. The first thing that has been done is to draw up a map with citizens who may be in a vulnerable situation. According to data from 2021, only 164 people over 65 and 67 over 80 live. 241 live with another older person. Older people who will live alone in 2035 are expected to be 250. They cross the data of people who are at risk of being injured with others who have in the Social Services (hospital status, economic situation...), and thus have more complete information about each citizen.

Ane Lizaso started working once the map was drawn up. He is an educator of the cooperative Zabalduz, subcontracted by the City Hall. It sieves information on your computer and detects people who may need it. Some of them go home, some of them call by phone. His is the work of prevention.

In addition to individual interventions, Lizaso is working on the most collective care. The idea was that the person who lives alone could be the help of a neighbor, create a kind of couple, always with the agreement of both. They have not achieved these types of couples, especially due to the concerns of the caregiver: What will your family think? Can you imagine in the neighborhood that I'm a gossip? However, Lizaso has told us that these types of care couples already exist, but that they have not wanted to formalize their relationship, surely because they do not feel the need to do so.

Therefore, they have developed more collective forms than the care model by couples. Lizaso has brought together a group of a dozen people in the centre of the town, who go for walks and dinners, and make visits to the two locations. He would like the network to develop, but in addition to the elderly, he has in mind a network that covers other generations. The word you mentioned a lot in the interview is "sensitization": "Loneliness is considered a matter of the old and today the youngest also live an unchosen solitude." It aims to achieve the participation of people of any age who need it in the care network and for this it is thinking of actions attractive to all.

Zestoa is a very dispersed village, with eleven neighborhoods, mostly rural, and not very close to the center. The educator Lizaso knows this and believes it is a feature to keep in mind. It meets this reality when Aizarna goes to the neighborhood to talk about the surveillance network. That is, the neighbors are not served by the surveillance network being organized in the neighborhood of Zestoa, they want their surveillance network. Another objective of Lizaso is to develop surveillance groups in the neighborhoods. He started with Aizarna. Five or six "young" retirees have begun to meet every week and are willing to collaborate in the development of the neighborhood's care network. They work ideas, and Lizaso helps shape them. We have already mentioned that they have not managed to develop the mold of the couples, but they perform other types of care tasks in this group. From time to time we warn Lizaso: this week he has not come to drink coffee, so we have not seen it on the street long ago...

Lizaso also wants to lead neighborhoods to develop intergenerational relationships. They have started to take steps with small actions. A mus championship was organised: "It may seem silly to you to set up a mus championship, but that's not the case. Several generations had acted together and some did not know the name of the other." The Aizarna district has about 300 inhabitants. What is said many times in the neighborhoods to present the surveillance network: we don't have that kind of services, we lack this infrastructure and this one. In Lizaso's opinion, we have to ask for what is required, but the citizens have to think about what can be done by themselves to take care of themselves.

Where and how do we want to be cared for?Regarding the second line of
the Strategic Plan, the monitoring table is reflecting on how and where people want to be cared for by the public. Illarramendi says that the model will not come from outside or from above, therefore, to think and invent corresponds to the surveillance table. This work mainly involves the two residences and the 3Z association. Each residence is working on its care model, while No. 3 contributes to the care of their own homes. Among other things, citizens are analysing ways of making their own life plan, that is, before the need for care comes, their wishes would be collected in writing: where they would want to live (residence, their own house, community housing...), who would like to be cared for, who they want to live with, how they want to die.

The third line is the development of services and infrastructures. They have already carried out the evaluation of the resources of the municipality. In Illarramendi's view, the services and infrastructures ''' how do we want to live? ''' answer the question. Although there has been no consultation in the village, in general, the data indicate that people want to be cared for at home. The level of culture and knowledge has increased, the citizens have more expectations, many want to continue living as partners... and the resources are not prepared to meet these needs. Saioa Lasa has reported one of the most frequent situations in the residences: an elderly person cannot be cared for at home and has been transferred to the residence. In the home, the female sentimental partner, who has also been of age, has remained alone. The one who has stayed at home does not enter into any classification of the dependents, because they manage themselves, but "it has been lost, its column has disappeared, the partner has been separated". Lasa and Illarramendi have called for a change in regulations and the possibility that couples can take care of themselves igualitaria.Al the

director of the residence does not like to make a distinction, a residence, a protected home... In his opinion, "everything has to be one, everything has to be a house." He mentioned the interview from the beginning as the concept "home": "The institution tells the resident how to live in the residence and should not. We come down the street to offer a service to this place and enter your home with a lot of respect."

The viability of the project is addressed in the fourth line. It is a popular initiative project, led by the City Hall. Both the City Hall and the San Juan Foundation and the 3Z Association have received grants from the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa. All the studies and works carried out by each of the agents are presented at the monitoring table and used to help develop the country project.

Old
age is not a matter
for young people
After an hour and a half of a talk, we asked the two workers in the residence about the challenges of the future. The aim is to attract young people. In Zestoa, as in society in general, young people feel distant old age and care, even if it is they who have needs in the future. The school and the local Gazteleku are on the list of agents, but neighbors between 18 and 60 years old do not feel the project. Not

all flashes are gold and in this project they also have difficulties. Illarramendi highlighted two. On the one hand, some agents think that the pace of work is too slow and that it is difficult to move forward. The same concern is with the mayor of the town, Mikel Arrangi. The latter has underlined the strength and roundness of the action, which has an added difficulty: "The speeds are different, they press and it's OK to press. Institutional administrative management has its times and when we unify the rhythms, we get contradictions. We have small shocks, always in a healthy way. If we look back, I think we have travelled the

other side camino.Por, Lasa and Illarramendi have stressed that the regulations of the Basque Government and the Council of Gipuzkoa are rigid. In particular, it is up to them to prove that they are "inventing" a model of care appropriate to the locality and that the lack of legal flexibility makes it difficult for them to move. A clear example is the one we mentioned later, that is, that of an elderly man who, taking his partner to residence, has left himself alone at home because he does not meet the conditions of dependency. "We're always fighting. The couple should not be separated, the house should be the house of both. Another example is that of a bed room. The Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa requests that rooms be structured in this way, but couples cannot share the housing n.El mayor,

Mikel Arrangi, is satisfied with the journey the Monitoring Bureau has received. It says that there was discoordination, on the one hand, the City Hall, on the other hand, the residence, without exchange of information or exchange of services. It is now up to the Monitoring Bureau to coordinate both professional and informal resources. The main municipal services are sheltered housing, day centre and home service. The management of the first two is attributed to the San Juan Foundation and are located in the same building as the headquarters. The most important care service directly managed by the City Hall is at home. All workers are municipal workers. In Gipuzkoa, only four municipalities have this service without subcontracting. He is in favour of this model, but has pointed out that it creates difficulties. Today, they reach the 38 people, "we do not reach all, and the City Council lacks the economic capacity and legal certainty for the contracts, if it does not have the collaboration of the Provincial Council and the Basque Government". Zestoa is a large town and outside the municipal radar there are several people in vulnerable situation. According to Arrangi, "this country project will contribute to the creation of a new ecosystem of care in which through neighborhood custody the conditions will be created to also care for people who are outside the municipal care system". Even if the City Council considered it economically viable to recruit more staff, it would not be able to do so, because the law used to control public debt does not allow new contracts to be made. The objective of the project is to fill the gap generated by the institutional administrative difficulty through surveillance comunitaria.Se

need economic resources to offer home care, and more resources are needed to continue designing the entire community care network. In this regard, the mayor appreciates the attitude of the Provincial Council that is getting funding from his hand. He also has a criticism, in which he coincides with the managers of the residence San Juan: "The administration is very rigid. The home service is offered by the City Hall, but the dependency evaluations are carried out by the Provincial Council. We do not decide who has the need, who is going to the residence or to the protected house. Instead of facilitating the care of people, it gets complicated like this."


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