Support-Girona, with a state subsidy from the programme subject to the endowment taxation of 0.7% on account of personal income tax, has launched the Aging at Home project.

Overall goals

• To extend the stay at the usual home of people over 65 years of age
• To organise all the existing resources in the network so that the supported person receives good care in their own home
• To maintain and enhance the person’s social relationships with their closest environment to avoid social isolation
• To coordinate with other elderly care organisations to improve support and fight unwanted loneliness
• To provide counselling and support for family members that have dependents over 65 years of age
• To disclose the rights of the elderly

Specific goals

• To furnish and provide services and resources to ensure good home care
• To encourage the supported persons to participate in social activities in a familiar environment
• To participate in the development of protocols to prevent and/or detect abuse of the elderly
• To give talks at residential centres and at the resources of the elderly care network
• To offer one-on-one talks to family members, specialists, etc.
• To ensure that direct assistance is available for different specialists; family workers, nursing, etc.

In 2021, Support-Girona created the Support Lab Vital to promote independent living in the community with the support of the consultancy Alter Civites. This space works towards:

1. Recognising the fundamental value of each unique person in our collective transformation by being aware of their strengths and potential.
2. Achieving a community environment that is welcoming, accessible, and inclusive.
3. Empowering specialists and organisations to offer better support.
4. Transforming service systems in all their dimensions (i.e., professional support, financial benefits, products, support technologies, housing, etc.) so that they can respond to the supported persons right to live independently in the community.

The approach consists of a fourfold perspective:

1. It improves the capabilities of the persons who want to live independently in the community by providing support for it.
2. It transforms the community environment.
3. It empowers the specialists and organisations.
4. It improves the service and support systems.

In short, it supported people and their rights by promoting self-empowerment, improving the services and support systems, and transforming the community environment.

Open Space is a service that is an alternative to the existing resources for responding to people with psychosocial disabilities who are in critical situations of social exclusion due to a variety of causes and personal reasons. This is done through health and social support based on the agreement and goodwill of the people using the resources. Open Space is fostered by Support-Girona and the state-run Healthcare Institute (IAS). It is aimed at people who may have issues related to the consumption of toxic substances on top of having mental and behavioural disorders with little connection to the Mental Health and Addictions Network. Its users meet the criteria of severe social exclusion, and all its actions are designed to reduce the stigma and other barriers that negatively affect their social and community inclusion. Majority of the people it supports do not have a family, social support, or financial resources, or if they do, they are scarce (i.e., less than 400 Euros per month). Moreover, some of them are in a situation of homelessness or rooflessness.

The innovation lies in the methodology of intervention. Open Space is a facility that can be used voluntarily by individuals who are in a vulnerable condition, and there is no rule limiting their access. The basic rules of operation are: respect among the users and respect for their decisions on the part of the specialists, who take the approach of minimal intervention.

This resource comes equipped with a kitchen, living room, dining room, washing machine, courtyard, and different spaces for showering and maintaining personal hygiene. This is to ensure a safe environment where the person can cover their basic needs of hygiene and food. Once this first phase has been reached, the aim of the intervention model is to encourage the development of personal skills relating to personal well-being, socialisation, and trust in other resources of the local health and social network.

Open Space is attended by specialists from Support-Girona and the IAS and is available from 8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. from Monday to Friday, with reduced opening hours over the weekends. During these hours, the users are invited to participate in the centre’s routine activities, such as preparing meals, cleaning, doing laundry, gardening, and organising the space. The spaces and moments of social interaction can be adapted according to the attendance and profile of persons at any given moment.

From homelessness to adequate housing

In two years, more than one hundred people have benefited from this service, 90% of whom have gone from being homelessness or rooflessness to living in adequate housing. Standout achievements of the intervention methodology include the follow-up of medication, reduction of involuntary admissions to psychiatric units, acquisition of healthy life habits, and improvement in the supported person’s socialisation. On average, a user stays in the facility for a period of one year.

The ultimate goal of Open Space is to provide assistance through which the supported persons can develop the capacity to be autonomous without the supervision of specialists.

For its implementation in 2020, Open Space counted on the participation of La Caixa Foundation and Dipsalut. Moreover, in 2021, it received the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) Innovation Award, which recognises innovative European practices for the social inclusion of persons with disabilities.

In Girona, the long psychiatric stay facilities were closed in 2004. In 2022, the process started in Catalonia, which took the community-based model of mental health care in Girona as a reference. Open Space is one of the alternative community resources that was used as an example for the changes that will be gradually implemented in Catalonia in order to convert the current long-stay facilities in mental hospitals.

Support-Girona informs the general population about legal and social support by offering talks upon request. The most common topics are legal assistance as well as social support and how these are put into practice, the new paradigm of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the reform of legal capacity 2021, the support mechanisms for the person, the activities of the organisation, future forecasts, and mechanisms such as protected heritage property or any issue related to legal and social support for persons with disabilities and their rights in accordance with CRPD.