The Territorial Director of the Imserso of Melilla, Verónica Aznar, has participated in the I Conference on Loneliness that the entity has organized in the State Reference Center for Attention to People in Situations of Dependence (Credei) in León and whose objective has been to open a shared line of reflection and work on loneliness in the network of centers of the Imserso.
These Days, which have also included the participation of the Director of the Polyvalent Center for Services for Older People - popularly known as Residence for Seniors - Ibrahim Molina, have served as a starting point to move forward on a core issue, such as loneliness, and sought to reflect together on what can be done from the Imserso and its network of centers to detect, prevent and address loneliness in the coming years.
“The challenge is very broad, since loneliness must be addressed at all stages of life and in any situation or circumstance of vulnerability,” said Aznar, who has referred to the need to influence the consequences for health and well-being of a demographic scenario of prolonged life expectancy, population aging and with technology increasingly present in all areas of daily life and which invites individualism and the construction of virtual relationships.
To this must be added the architectural designs, common spaces and housing that can be improved when it comes to promoting relationships and sensory accessibility, mobility and cognitive accessibility, he said.
Prevention and intervention
Aznar explained that Imserso “is finalizing a strategic Global Framework in the face of loneliness that has the vocation of being transversal, inclusive and shared with other Ministries”.
This Framework, he explained, aims to reduce levels of loneliness, acting from prevention to intervention and both individually and in other areas such as social, community, educational or environmental.
Likewise, it must help to build a positive vision of time in solitude, of using tools that help overcome vital moments that can be a risk factor, generate public debate and serve as a framework to develop operational plans.
Operating Plan
The Imserso also planned an Operational Plan that began to be implemented in the second half of 2023. This Plan 2023-2026 of the Imserso against loneliness contemplates starting a shared and participatory line of work in the network of centers of the Imserso that encourages the realization of activities to address the reality of loneliness from prevention to intervention and in any of its facets or topics of interest.
To define and deepen the knowledge about detection, prevention and approach, it is essential to lay the foundations from the context of each center, each territory or the profile of the users.
Objectives
Among the objectives of the conference, Aznar has highlighted the opening of a shared line of reflection and work on loneliness in the network of centers of the Imserso and the fact that it has served to define in a participatory way an approach to the needs and potentialities to address unwanted loneliness in users.
The Territorial Director of the Imsero de Melilla has also highlighted that it will allow us to jointly generate possible lines of work in the network of centers and, finally, create a working group that will promote and promote the continuity and development of initiatives for the prevention and approach of loneliness in Imserso centers.
The working methodology was based on presentations and basic conceptual approaches that gave way to the work in workshops and the debate in a large group that is the fundamental objective of the Conference.
The discussions took place both in small groups and in plenary sessions to share the work done in the workshops. Each group had a dynamizer and a rapporteur to share the main contents with the rest of the participants, which has allowed to establish the conclusions that will be the basis of the future work of the motor group.