“El número de mayores que viven solos en Navarra y País Vasco ha pasado del 16% al 24,6% en 17 años”
"The issue of elderly people living alone in Navarre and the Basque Country has increased from 16% to 24.6% in 17 years."
María Isabel Genua, from Fundación Matía, and Professor Berta Lasheras lead a course on aging and dependence at the University of Navarra.
"According to recent programs of study , both in Navarra and in the Basque Country the percentage of elderly people living alone has increased from 16% in 1993 to 24.6% in 2010". This was stated by María Isabel Genua, care and innovation director of the Matía Foundation and co-director, together with Berta Lasheras, of the course 'Aging, disease and dependence', which is being held at the School Pharmacy of the University of Navarra.
Mª Isabel Genua, professor of Master's Degree in Pharmaceutical Care in Geriatrics at the academic center, also confirmed that in recent years the percentage of elderly people who move to live with their children has decreased, "from 15.2% to 3% in the last 17 years, although the number of elderly people who live with a partner or accompanied by a child has remained the same or increased," she explains.
With regard to dependent elderly people -whose status was discussed in depth in the course- the specialist stressed that their care "should be oriented towards active aging. That is, to ensure that the elderly do not become disabled, for which there are predictors such as good health, physical and mental activity, autonomy and, above all, social participation". This advance is, for manager, fundamental if we take into account that Spain is among the countries with the most aged population, "with values of around 17-18% in Navarre and the Basque Country, and 16-17% for average in Spain".
Dependency Law: efficiency in Navarra and the BAC
In this regard, Mª Isabel Genua recalled that although the National Health System is very well prepared for the diagnosis and monitoring of the main problems associated with ageing - such as heart failure, chronic bronchitis, arterial hypertension and diabetes - it is not so well prepared for the overall approach to the elderly person with chronic pathology and in status of dependency: "These are high-risk people who, in many cases, are in the last stages of their lives, and who have only begun to be taken into account with the implementation of the Law of Autonomy staff and Support for Dependency."
Precisely, in the opinion of the professor, Navarra and the Basque Country are the regions where the allocation of the resources provided for by the Law has been best assessed. There, as in the rest of the autonomous communities, a tool has been implemented to assess dependency that includes three categories of dependents and has made it possible to distribute the financial aid for those identified as highly dependent. "The next step," added the expert, "will be the distribution of aid to the other categories, which will take place over the next four years."
Finally, on the use of drugs, the professor of the University of Navarra pointed out that the problem does not lie so much in self-medication as in medication errors and the fact that they are not taken correctly. "Both issues are now beginning to be studied specifically," she concluded.