The MAPER project, a collaboration between the two entities, has been selected in the call for Social Action in Rural Areas 2021 of the Obra Social of “la Caixa” Foundation.
Green light for the MAPER project, a partnership between the Institute of Robotics for Dependency and the Olivella City Council. The project was selected in the call for Social Action in the Rural Area 2021 of “la Caixa” Foundation and will be carried out during 2022, with the aim of improving the autonomy and care of people in need of long-term support in rural areas.
The project responds to one of the great challenges of our society, aggravated by the crisis of the Covid-19: the ageing of the population, which together with the increase of people with mental illness, chronicity and the need for deinstitutionalization, makes it a priority to rethink the current models of social care for people in a situation of dependency. In addition, long-term care and support require a major change in order to adapt to the new needs of the profiles of the people being cared for.
On the other hand, the rural environment suffers from common problems such as the depopulation of the territory, the lack of public resources and an increasingly marked ageing of the population. Therefore, the MAPER project takes on even more value and becomes more necessary than ever to solve these difficulties that affect such a valuable part of the population.
The Institute of Robotics presented, together with the Olivella City Council, a proposal for the call of “la Caixa”, to carry out a joint and coordinated action to detect, prevent, evaluate and act proactively, offering the necessary support at all times and throughout the life cycle of the population.
The project is carried out with the help of Never Alone, an IT platform in the cloud that makes it possible to coordinate a network of proximity support around a dependent person living alone, with the aim of adapting the support needed at each stage of the life cycle, depending on the type of support and the evolution of the eight dimensions of quality of life measured by the Gencat scale.
The Institute has already carried out a small pilot test successfully with a group of 20 users in the town of Sant Pere de Ribes. This project will involve the effective deployment of the tool in the town of Olivella, in collaboration with the city council, its social services and neighbourhood organizations, in order to guarantee the accompaniment of dependent people who live alone. Likewise, the aim of this project is to demonstrate the advantages of the tool so that other towns in rural environments can benefit from it.
The Olivella City Council has expressed its satisfaction with the implementation of the project in its municipality and has stated that “there are about forty people who require continuous monitoring at the moment. The forecasts indicate that this figure will increase and that resources and solutions must be provided”. In addition, the Garraf council has stated that it will carry out “an initial assessment of these people, in accordance with the scale of support and the Quality of Life scale”.
The initiation of the MAPER project will provide an innovative tool for people who need it in order to provide better care and attention, to act better and more proactively, and to receive more quickly the economic contributions that correspond to the support they actually offer. In addition, they will have technologies to support technical staff with warnings, alerts and computer connections with the Department of Labour, Social Affairs and Family.