Four or more offices in the Lecco area to support “caregivers” to provide information, support, advice and indications for dealing with difficult situations not only from a practical but also psychological point of view.
Claudio Dossi
Caring for those who care. It has been a topic at the center of debates and reflections for some time. The aging of the population with worsening health conditions leads to a worsening of family conditions. And people who take care of elderly or sick relatives – “caregiver” is the English term now in common use here too – too often feel at a loss, they need help and help that sometimes they don’t know from whom. ask.
Therefore, take care of those who take care of. It is from this perspective that a project has been launched in the Lecco area in which Auser (an acronym for Association for Active Aging) is at the forefront: in concert with the local health authority it participated in a regional tender and obtained the funding for the opening of the branches. “With you for them”, the title.
Emanuele Manzoni
The project was presented at a meeting held at the “Pertini” civic center in Germanedo and attended by Claudio Dossi (provincial president of the Lecco Auser), Stefania Bolis (responsible for the ATS “caregiver” portal), Luca Sesana ( director of the Lecco health district), Emanuele Manzoni (municipal welfare councilor) and Roberta Sartori (dance therapist).
Roberta Sartori
The regional project involves the opening of four of four branches in the province. One has already left, the one from Colico. The second is that of Lecco and will start shortly and subsequently those of Paderno d’Adda and Mandello will be opened. For its part, Auser will promote other branches in Valsassina (in Introbio and Cremeno).
Stefania Bolis
The counter will be open one day a week, the city one at the same Auser branch in Corso Monte Santo in the San Giovanni district. It will be in connection with the health authority portal launched two years ago and will provide information and directions, help with carrying out small bureaucratic procedures or activating the SPID or CIE which are now the indispensable pass-partouts for accessing the various online services. , will also make available to interested parties a handbook with the map of the province’s territorial services for the elderly care sector. The help desk will also provide psychological support. And it is in this context that dance therapy courses are inserted which are an opportunity for participants to elaborate states of mind and compare themselves with others «because caring is not just caring – underlined Sartori – but taking charge of the whole person, from material to spiritual needs.” Dance therapy is therefore a form of “self-help”. The services provided by the desk will be entirely free.
Luca Sesana
The figures on the aging of the population are now known: in the city of Lecco there are eight thousand people over 65, which means 24% of the population which in twenty years will have risen to 35%. Furthermore, there are 12 thousand single nuclear families who are not only single by choice or “philosophy”, but rather due to family vicissitudes or bereavements. It is a world that we must look at, Manzoni underlined, to be able to intercept needs knowing that every situation is different and aid interventions cannot be made in photocopy. And volunteering naturally plays a central role in this policy. For his part, Sesana recalled how, according to regional legislation, the “third sector” has taken on an increasingly institutional role and the Lecco initiative is a synthesis of overall socio-health policies.
Bolis traced the genesis of the initiative. It was two years ago that the ATS promoted courses for “caregivers”, holding lessons throughout the province. An almost impromptu initiative that received considerable attention. At the same time we also realized that it was necessary to provide precise and targeted responses to a series of requests from interested parties. It was thus decided to establish an internet portal (www.assistereinfamiglia.org) precisely to convey information and advice. Some short videos that act as tutorials are also published on the portal.
It is in this context that Dossi of Auser came forward with the proposal to open branches in the area, an initiative that the ATS could not have organized independently. Thus was born the “With you for them” project and the decision to participate in the regional tender and obtain the funding necessary to start the initiative.
D.C.
