Social Welfare involves neighborhood associations in La Brújula Project to reach more vulnerable elderly people

Benidorm City Council wants the city's neighbourhood associations to participate in the so-called La Brújula Project, a community prevention program launched by the Department of Social Welfare to identify cases of vulnerable elderly people or those at risk of isolation, mostly due to unwanted loneliness. To this end, the councillor for the area, Ángela Zaragozí, and technicians from her department met with representatives of the Neighbourhood Council to explain the project in detail and request their collaboration, to reach more people who may be in this situation and act more effectively.

Zaragozí pointed out that "since this program was launched, we have been able to identify, assist, and help 261 people, more than half of whom have been referred to other Social Welfare programs to improve their situation, well-being, or quality of life, something that is extremely important to us." Therefore, he opined that “neighborhood associations can be a very useful tool for reaching more people,” taking advantage of their proximity to “expand the network of volunteers and collaborators.”

La Brújula Project is an initiative launched by Benidorm City Council in 2018 to identify cases of elderly people living alone due to a lack of family or friends and to prevent this involuntary loneliness from leading to isolation that can seriously affect their well-being and quality of life. To make this possible, the project relies on a network of volunteers and collaborators, including health centres, pharmacies, banks, organisations such as the Red Cross and Cáritas, as well as traditional neighbourhood shops, many of which display a distinctive sign on their doors for easy identification.

The project's operating procedure dictates that, upon suspicion of a possible case, it should be reported to the relevant department, whose technicians then visit the person's home to conduct an assessment and inform them of the available services. “That’s why the collaboration of small businesses, pharmacies, and well-known individuals with a presence in the neighbourhoods is so valuable, so we can identify people who may be in this situation and begin to take action,” Zaragozí points out.

After this first meeting with representatives of neighbourhood associations, the next step will be to participate in the next plenary session of the Neighbourhood Council, where the operation and objectives of Project Compass will be presented to the other council members to expand its network to all neighbourhoods of Benidorm.

8,563 people over 75 years old

Ángela Zaragozí explained that, currently, there are 8,563 registered residents over 75 years old in Benidorm, of whom slightly more than half – around 4,500 – live alone, according to data available to the City Council. The councilwoman recalled that when this community prevention project was launched, “the number of registered residents over 75 years of age in Benidorm was 4,967, meaning it has practically doubled in just seven years. This makes projects like ‘La Brújula’ even more necessary to act and mitigate, as much as possible, the negative effects of unwanted loneliness.”

“More and more elderly people are living alone, especially after the loss of a partner, or because they have a weak family network, suffer from an illness that makes them dependent, or experience financial hardship, which ultimately leads to isolation that further worsens their condition.” Therefore, “faced with the challenge of guaranteeing their safety and well-being, it was decided to launch this project, in conjunction with the resources and community organizations in the neighborhoods, to prevent this situation of isolation and make available to these individuals all the services offered or managed by the Department of Social Welfare,” such as telecare, home help, day centers, and programs like ‘Major a Casa’ (Seniors at Home).

In this regard, she pointed out that “prevention is key” to avoid “these cases reaching us at a very advanced stage or when the only possible solution is hospitalization in a care home or hospital,” and that “this Brújula Project aims to intervene when the person still has some autonomy to live alone, providing them with resources and services” such as those mentioned above.

Finally, Ángela Zaragozí reiterated her public invitation to neighbourhood, social, and business associations; shops; companies; and individuals to join and collaborate with this initiative by sending an email to proyectobrujula@benidorm.org.