Elderly people, families with trans children and people with disabilities: the Government promotes new LGTBI mutual support groups
Equality prepares a pioneering community care plan to address the demands of the most vulnerable group
BarcelonaThe Department of Equality and Feminism will launch a new "community care" service for the LGTBI community that will complement the individual support already provided at the hundred points of the Integral Care Network (SAI) throughout Catalonia. Pending the approval of the Generalitat's budget and the corresponding tender, the new service will provide collective "on-demand" responses with mutual support groups guided by a social educator hired for this plan.
The Director General of LGBTI+ Public Policies of the department, Alberto Lacasta, explains that the service arises to meet the demands of the SAI staff, who offer a comprehensive and personalized service, for community needs based on "support, mutual aid, and empowerment of individuals". Although the service is open to any detected need of the community, "priority profiles" have been set: young people, the elderly, refugees and immigrants or people with disabilities from the LGBTI+ community, as well as families with trans children and trans people at risk of social exclusion.
When a demand or common needs are detected – the desire for safe spaces, family support, and strengthening of parenthood, for example – in a territory, the SAI will forward the demand to the social educators hired for the service, who will have to make a proposal on how to address it and what follow-up will be carried out. From three people, a group will be formed, which will follow the approved work plan to develop between three and eight sessions. One of the objectives is to "create synergies", Lacasta points out to ARA.
Beyond entities
The implementation of this project will be structured through a public tender divided into three contracting lots that will cover all of Catalonia: the northern, southern, and central regions, and will have two social educators who will be responsible for making work proposals and monitoring them. "Throughout the territory, not everyone has their own organizations. The organizations do a good job where they are, but we want to reach absolutely everywhere," indicates the person in charge.
On the other hand, and coinciding with the celebration of Pride, councilor Eva Menor has announced that a badge will be created for senior residences that are respectful of the sexual diversity of users, to prevent them from having to come out of the closet once they are admitted.
