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Writing/Raúl García Hémonnet
The event, held last Thursday, April 23 electronically, has served to highlight the role of Social Work professionals, especially in a context like the current one, in which the world is facing the pandemic caused by SARS-Cov2. Social work is one of those sectors called 'essential' during the state of alarm decreed by the Government and its importance in these times is made clear by accompanying the most vulnerable people and trying to guarantee their rights.
To talk about all this, the degree teacher, Silvia Giménez, decided to invite speakers such as Juan Daniel Ugalde, social worker of the San Martín de Porres Foundation and degree professor; Juan Carlos Ramos, a professional from the Community of Madrid Emergency Service and Teresa López, a worker at the Orpea Buenavista nursing home in Madrid and a professor at the URJC.
“Compliance with confinement when your house is the street is complicated”
Juan Daniel Ugalde focused his speech on the situation of homeless people in the Community of Madrid during this crisis. He indicated that the reality of this group entails difficulties in this context and added that "complying with confinement when your home is the street, is complicated."
The speaker lamented “the lack of support that the Residential Centers for Homeless People have experienced, where PPEs have not been dispensed, nor have coronavirus tests been carried out, despite the fact that many of these centers have rooms in which they must share a bed with 4-5 other people, this assuming a great risk of contagion, especially in people who, in a considerable percentage, have other additional pathologies (hypertension, immunodeficiency problems, etc.)”.
Ugalde, on the other hand, highlighted that, on the part of both the City Council and the Community of Madrid, different initiatives have been carried out to alleviate the effects of the pandemic and try to contain its spread. The URJC professor highlighted that, in this sense, "the Cold Campaign has been extended (150 places), places have been set up at IFEMA (300, which were filled practically on the first day of its opening), or the setting up of new temporary devices such as Los Molinos (with 50 places). However, he added “the number of homeless people in Madrid rises to 3.006 people (if immigrant reception centers are included), of which 650 were directly living on the street, according to data from the last count of people homeless, carried out by the Madrid City Council”. And he added, "although there is no doubt about the good will of trying to provide alternatives for these people, we still have hundreds of them who have not found a place and have been forced to stay on the street, with the only security of a safe conduct that endorses as a homeless person, so as not to be penalized for being on public roads”.
The speaker called on all the institutions to work intensely together, “to ensure that all citizens are safe in the face of this health crisis and the subsequent economic crisis that will accompany it, citizens of which the homeless are also a part. It is an obligation of all to stop making the most disadvantaged invisible."
“In residences we face the crisis without the appropriate means”
For her part, Teresa López addressed the issue from the point of view of nursing homes in the Community of Madrid and criticized the vision that has been transferred from the sector in the media. López recounted how the responsibility of caring for the elderly in residences in the worst of the pandemic fell on the centers themselves, as they could not refer residents to hospitals due to their situation, “there were no referrals to hospitals for residents , they denied them to us, due to lack of beds and for prioritizing younger patients”, he pointed out.
This made, indicated the speaker, that “residential centers took charge of them, without having the appropriate and necessary means, such as respirators, essential equipment in this crisis. The first few days we also faced great ignorance, the measures always seemed to arrive late and the protocols were constantly changing. We follow public health regulations, and we have kept the different agencies informed at all times." The tests, added this social worker, "although they were requested on multiple occasions, they did not arrive until last week, and they are still waiting. that they be done to the workers, who are causing sick leave due to presenting symptoms.”
Professor López also stated that, during the state of alarm, the work of the social workers has varied, "there are no new admissions, so there are no communications to the prosecution, we do not have family visits, the dependency law, etc. Above all, we take care of telephone communication with the families, supervising that the protective equipment is used correctly so that the failures of the first days do not occur, and we support and coordinate the rest of the departments".
For his part, Juan Carlos Ramos recounted how, together with his colleagues in the service, in the face of the situation caused by COVID-19, they are currently carrying out their functions on the social care telephone line with support for the fire department of the Community of Madrid in Covering the needs of nursing homes.
The event also included the participation of 4th year Social Work students and a video made by Teresa López was shown, in which testimonies are collected from social work professionals with elderly people in residences, with homeless people, in social emergencies , in attention to women and with victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and prostituted women. Two of these professionals are Alba and Eduardo, former students of Social Work at URJC, who finished their studies last year and are already working in the sector.
The activity carried out on Thursday is part of the cycle of the five supervision sessions and training activities that the Social Work internship tutor, Silvia Giménez, has organized for this course dedicated to Ethics in Social Work, Social Work during the crisis Covid-19, Mindfulness in environments of social exclusion, Reflections on Basic Income and Specialization in Social Work.
Today, Tuesday, the online event 'Mindfulness in environments of social exclusion' is scheduled to be held, by the teacher, who is also president of the NGO Proyecto Ser Terapeutas Sin Fronteras. It will be held from 16:45 p.m. to 19:45 p.m.