The has recently organized at the College of Physicians of Santiago de Compostela the course of «Specialized Socio-Health Training for the Implementation of the Person-Centered Comprehensive Care Model (AICP)«, a type of care for the elderly and dependent people that seeks to satisfy all the vital needs and improve the quality of life of the people it cares for, counting at all times on their full participation, their values and their vision of how it should be his life.
According to the social gerontologist and expert in comprehensive social intervention, Lourdes Bermejoin charge of teaching this course, the AICP “contributes to improve the sector, not only by optimizing the quality of care, but also because achieves that older people are taken more into account by professional work”.
And it is that one of the main aspirations of the new model is to modify the way of working and relating to users to achievethat they are well cared for and at the same time that they can continue to be adults, valuable and recognized peopleaware of a better quality of life in this vital stage, even despite the state of health or the need for care.
To implement the AICP, the ideal is that residences and institutions, their spaces and the relationships that are generated between professionals and people “be more pleasant and kind to people in situations of fragility, dependency or disability”. Is about set up an environment”the closest thing to what was home and that the treatment received is more personalized and individual, not as a patient or dependent”.
“Rights are for everyone and for life. No one should lose them when accessing the provision of a service”, defends Lourdes Bermejo
The AICP also implies that professionals and institutions that care for the elderly enhance their ability to fend for themselves and to make decisions, that is, his independence and autonomy, his need to maintain as much control of his life as possible, “What we know improves their subjective well-being, their self-esteem and their quality of life”.
And it is that, as indicated by this expert, the traditional model “prioritizes the quality of care, based on control and safety, homogenizing the treatment and offer of activities and opportunities for people, always designing from the point of view of the professional and the organization”.
In this sense, he emphasizes “the traditional model does not take into account the opinion of the person or consider it important. But now we know that it is necessaryor evolve towards a way of working where the person is given a voice to listen to it and, together with our professional opinion, reach a consensus with it”.
B.ermejo considers that “the AICP establishes the necessary links so that each older person can fulfill that life they want to live in the most similar way to how it has been up to now”. It is what defines “normalize old age” and ensures that the AICP “It is the model of the future, still in the process of being implemented in Spain, but with a track record in other countries, already going back several decades.”, assures the social gerontologist.
This model “It is not something that we copy from other countries but a way of looking at and providing solutions from our culture and society, which is constantly evolving and improving”well, it assures, “It is not a closed system, it is enriched and advances with the debatethe common proposals, the constant analysis of the agents involved”.
Another guarantee of the prevalence of the AICP is that it respects people’s rights. “Rights are for everyone and for life. No one should lose them when accessing the provision of a service. Society would have to continue guaranteeing them”. If a person has the right to decide, for example, he must continue to have this right when it comes to receiving support for his daily life. Failure to do so would be discrimination based on age or physical situation. And concludes: “this model is here to stay, there is no going back”.