Experts and users produce a declaration of support for the residential care sector in a session of reflection at UVic-UCC

Professionals and users of care organisations and academic experts in the care sector dealing with vulnerable people have produced a declaration of support for the residential care sector. The document emerged from a session of reflection that took place on Tuesday afternoon at the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), organised by its Chair in Palliative Care, which was attended by around forty people, including the Minister for Social Rights of the Government of Catalonia, Carles Campuzano. The proposals for improvement focus on care for patients and their families, the rights and needs of the professionals involved, and issues relating to resources and funding for the sector. They are set out in ten points, known as the Vic Declaration. 

Those taking part in the work session included managers of residential homes for senior citizens, people with disabilities and mental health from all over Catalonia, as well as representatives of users' organisations, and various professionals from the direct care and residential care sectors. Other participants in addition to the Minister of Social Rights included Lluís Torrents, the Secretary of Social Affairs and Families; Marta Segura, the director general of Personal Autonomy and Disability; Conxita Barbeta, the head of Integrated Care in the Ministry of Social Rights; Marina Geli, the director general of the Foundation for Advanced Health Sciences Studies; Xavier Gómez Batiste, the director of the UVic-UCC Chair in Palliative Care; and the director of Integrated Care of the Ministry of Health. The rector of UVic-UCC, Josep Eladi Baños, and the president of the Balmes University Foundation and mayor of Vic, Anna Erra, took part in the opening of the session. 

The Vic Declaration is linked to the results of the RESICOVID19 study carried out over the last two years, which describes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the residential care sector, and sets out the factors in the sector's resilience, as well as highlighting its shortcomings and requirements. The study, produced by UVic-UCC with eight research groups and numerous organisations, listed more than 200 proposals for improvement that have now been summarised and are included in these ten points. 
 

A genuine starting point for transforming the sector

It is also based on the understanding that "the residential care sector is very important in quantitative and qualitative terms, it is an economic and social asset and an engine, and it needs to develop and implement a strategic renewal in order to adapt to the new needs arising from ageing, and from the prevalence and complexity of people with all kinds of chronic diseases who it is now dealing with," explains Xavier Gómez Batiste. The director of the Chair in Palliative Care at the UVic-UCC explains that the document approved yesterday "recognises the sector's role in caring for vulnerable people and the resilience it showed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic," but it aims to go much further. "It must be a genuine starting point for a set of actions that improve the sector, which must be specified and made tangible from now on," he said. 

As a result, the work session and the Vic Declaration that it has produced identify measures for improvement in various areas, and list recommendations for care and residential organisation that will be presented to the Ministry of Social Rights. In specific terms, they include proposals covering in the areas of comprehensive care in centres aimed at enhancing the residents' autonomy and the involvement of their families; improving the detection of advanced disease, pain, loneliness and psychosocial issues among residents; training, support and participation for professionals; empowering people in managerial positions responsible for leading the changes, and support and recognition from society and government. 

On a more executive level, the text calls for actions including the development and implementation of a set of agreed standards for care and organisation, as well as specific programmes for the improvement of quality, access to new care and information technologies, and connection to information systems; the production, agreement and implementation of a model of competencies, support and participation for professionals; work to make the residential care sector into a local, territorial and general benchmark for care for vulnerable people, and the implementation of strong leadership. It also states that "an ambitious project to overhaul the care model, organisation and structure with adequate funding and public and private investments" is needed.

"The sector needs to be understood and acknowledged as a key benchmark in care for vulnerable people, and the professionals who work in it must adopt a position of leadership in determining the values and behaviours guiding a caring and compassionate society oriented towards caring for particularly vulnerable people," concludes Gómez Batiste.