Imserso trips forget the covid with half a million participants

Imserso trips for the elderly are very close to returning to normal after almost two years of forced suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic. The very high rates of vaccination against covid among Spanish retirees and the implementation of security protocols made it possible to recover this popular subsidized recreational activity after Christmas.

The desire to resume visits and trips was widespread in 2022 and proof of this is that, despite the fact that in the first months there were several spikes in the rate of virus infections, so far this year half a million older people have returned to travel to other cities or countries with the Imserso, according to data offered today in Congress by the Minister of Social Rights.

Ione Belarra indicated that everything indicates that the official travel program for retirees will return to absolute normality this fall and that, for the new season, 2022-23, users are even expected to exceed pre-pandemic figures. , so the ministry is preparing to expand the offer of places if necessary. Proof of this growing interest is that 90% of those who have already traveled

The holder of this portfolio told the deputies that, in order to favor this normalization and lend a hand to the elderly, one of the groups most affected by the enormous rise in inflation, the Executive undertakes to keep the prices of the supply of Imserso trips for the new season, “they won’t have a single cent increase.”

Belarra pointed out that the ministry’s studies show that these trips, despite the persistence of the covid, are “extremely safe, because the guard has not been lowered with the security measures.” Any case that is detected is monitored and followed up to cut the chain of contagion. To demonstrate the veracity of his words, he commented that only 0.6% of the half million travelers have tested positive for coronavirus, which means that the rate of infection in these trips and coexistence is five times lower than that detected by the Ministry. of Health and ministries in the Spanish population over 60 years of age.

The minister has focused a good part of her parliamentary balance on the elderly. She did not hide from the deputies the strong resistance and opposition that she has encountered in numerous autonomies of different political persuasions to agree on a radical change in the model in homes for the elderly and the disabled. However, Belarra assured that “I am not going to give up my efforts until we manage to carry out this agreement” at the Territorial Council of Social Services in the coming weeks.

die without a place

The leader of United We Can defended that no one in this country would understand that political leaders failed the elderly, especially after the horror and overcrowding that the initial ravages of the pandemic brought to light in most of these residences. She added that she, at least, does not want “more images of overcrowded residences, or of patients treated with restraints, or of people who die waiting for a public square that never comes.”

He insisted that the pact to change the residences is a “priority” for his ministry and defended his proposal, rejected by many councilors and highly criticized by the private employers of care, which is the one who manages most of the public places in many autonomies through concerts. The minister defends that the plan, in addition to reinforcing home care for dependents, as it is the preferred option of the majority, increases the staff of the residences until there are practically two workers for each elderly person, banishes the restraints and the ‘pills’ as a form of control of the inmates, smaller centers for the elderly are generalized and organized around cohabitation units of 15 people, so that they resemble a home as much as possible, and the percentage of individual rooms is raised to 65 % to increase intimacy.

The head of Social Rights also explained that, thanks to the strong increase in resources for dependency transferred by the State this year to the autonomies, with a “historical figure of 2,600 million”, which means doubling the resources of 2020, it has been achieved increase in one year by 165,395 people the beneficiaries of benefits from the dependency care system. However, she warned that it will be necessary to redouble the financing effort by all parties since in the first four months of 2022 alone, 53,500 new applicants for these benefits have been registered.