“For the Group FOOTPATH�, the first platform of communication specialized in information for majors and Imserso Prize Infant Cristina de Comunicación, “2010 have been a very special year�, has declared its director, Matilde Pelegrí. And it will continue it being, because facing the next year the objectives concentrate in “consolidating the information sent to the active majors and harnessing the sectorial information of attention to the dependancy�, has indicated Pelegrí. Mainly because at the moment in Spain (16.7 percent of the total population) have more than 7.5 million people majors of 65 years and almost 16 million are majors of 50 years. In addition, according to the Survey on people majors realized by the Imserso, the today majors they are much more active and they feel healthier that in the past.

“One is a group that more and more demands their participation in the political and social life of our country. This note in the associative movement and also in the universities of majors that increase every year in number of students�, has showed the director of the Group FOOTPATH. For that reason, the magazine FOOTPATH for active people, who this year have turned ten years, “will continue betting by the information for majors, adapting us to its new needs, approaching to them the TIC, organizing explanatory days so that they know the welfare resources which they have and creating groups reference with the universities of majors to know its preoccupations�, has affirmed Pelegrí. Also, “BALANCE of the Dependancy will continue offering precise information on the application of the Law of Dependancy�, has concluded.

Next, the chief of a main directorate of the Imserso, Causapié Purification, has explained that White Libro of the Active Aging what comes to raise is “how we confronted the future of the society with a population more and more aged and how we make of it an opportunity and not a problem�, with policies more active than “they promote the personal autonomy of the people majors so that they can enjoy a satisfactory life the greater possible time�. In this sense, Causapié it has remembered that, in the last years, there has been “a very important change of the profile of the major, that demands the development of political the public health services and of prevention that guarantees a more active and healthful aging�.

After the presentation of the report of work on the part of the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality, that have made 30 experts, a period of debate with the political organizations of majors, industralists, unions, parties and autonomic and local administrations is abre now to present/display directed actions and proposals to improve the quality of life and to harness the capacities of the people majors. Of this form, White Libro of the Active Aging, that will see the light in the first semester of 2011, will try that the image of the majors adjusts to the reality, as well as to advance in social and educative policies that incorporate elements like intergenerational solidarity and to promote suitable professional services to its needs.

The person in charge of the Imserso has also spoken of the future White Book for the improvement of the public health coordination, that is jointly making the Ministry of Health and the independent communities, with the purpose of to impel some aspects of the development of the Law of Dependancy and to pick up the good practices that are carried out in some territories “to make proposals that serve to all the independent communities and all the agents as attention the dependancy�. But, for it, according to Causapié, “the coordination of the social services of health is necessary and from the Primary Attention and the implication of the city councils like people in charge of basic the social services�, besides the coordination of the services of domiciliary and residential attention, the territorial organization, the formation of the professionals and the support to the people nursemaids.

The opinion of the professionals
The president of the Foundation Edad&Vida, Higinio Raventós, has exposed that “we are before an absolute revolution from the professional point of view of the attention and as far as the new profile of the major�, since in our country the group of age of people majors of 65 years increases every year of remarkable form and today he represents already almost the 17 percent of the population. “It is necessary, therefore, to begin to listen what they must say other countries on the aging to know what is the effective thing, efficient and sustainable�, with the aim of developing an ample catalog of services in collaboration with the Public Administration, “for which marks are required�, has assured.

In this line, the ex- general assistant director of Planning, Arrangement and Evaluation of the Imserso, Pablo Cobo, has aimed who “the debate has changed. Once we know that the costs of the dependancy are those that are, the priority now is not as much the financing of the Law as to know what type of attention needs the people majors and/or in dependancy situation and if it is possible to be done to asumibles costs by the society�. For it, Cobo is outstanding the necessity to establish the percentage of co-financing of the services on the part of the user, “or in a 33 percent or inferior�.

On the other hand, the Secretary General of Aeste, Alicia Azaña, has commented clearly that the fundamental problem which the sector faces is to define “a clear frame of public-private collaboration in which requirements of accreditation by degree and level of dependancy settle down, because what he is not sustainable it is that if a residential place hill 70 Euros to the day, the Public Administration pays an average of 54 Euros, having to assume the private sector or the user a tariff deficit of 16 Euros�. This way, Azaña has bet by “a financing by modules�, as well as a reduction of the economic benefits for the cares in the familiar surroundings.

The chief of a main directorate of Personalia, Pablo Martin Calderón, also has insisted on this last question, that has described like “distorting element of the Law�, since “the amount of economic aid is an exaggeration� that is being granted against which it anticipated the Law. “The figure of the informal caretaker is creating many short term problems and we will not finish reconstructing the resources and to clarify the questions of the copayment, that are absolutely necessary, if we do not put brake to this situation of exceptional character�, has declared.

Next, the managing director of the Democratic Union of Pensioners (UDP), Paca Tricio, has taken part in the debate to clarify that “all the people majors are not employees� and has insisted on which “we would have to make all a very concerted effort to change the image of the major with policies of active aging, because until now she has been spoken much and she has acted herself little�. Also, as far as the Law of Dependancy, it has assured that “we are conscious that there is to go towards a copayment system, but want to be in the discussion of the percentage and that the central Administration guarantees minimums for all the Spanish territory�.

Finally, the delegated president-adviser of the Group Retirement, Carlos Martinez Cherry tree, has spoken in the same direction: “The resources public are very limited, for that reason the moment has arrived for thinking about the best mode of payment. Thus, the people majors must lean in their own economic resources that are, essentially, their real estate patrimony, by means of suitable financial products to their needs: life rents and inverse mortgages�.

Data to consider

• Spain is at the top of the European countries with greater life expectancy: 84 years for the women and 78 years for the men.

• The 60 percent of the people majors of 65 years says to have initiated new activities after the retirement.

• The Spanish society continues preferring the familiar cares, but the tendency is decreasing, mainly in the urban surroundings and the smaller people of 65 years.

• The 84 percent of the majors lives accompanied, unlike which the society thinks, that it thinks that almost half of them (46 percent) lives single.

• For the first time in Spain, there is an investment in the demographic tendency: more people majors of 65 years that young of 0 to 14 years.

• In 2050, United Nations locate more to Spain like the second aged country behind Japan.