Categories: FoundationPublished On: 18 de June de 2020

 

A study about the situation of
guardianship of adults with
intelectual disability in Spain
identifies that 47 % of them
are under the poverty level

 

Som – Fundació and Fundació Alosa participate in the third Study published by Asociación Española de Fundaciones Tutelares (AEFT) about the situation of the guardianship in Spain, between 2015 and 2019, that deepens in the profile of the persons with intellectual disability or development attended by them. This study makes clear the level of recognition and public coverage of the services provided by the guardianship Foundations that give support to these persons.

This study, with the participation of the guardianship Foundations of the network of AEFT, of which are part Som – Fundació in Barcelona, and Fundació Alosa, in Lleida, carries out an analysis of the population attended and concludes that, among other matters, 47 % are under the poverty level or in a situation or relative poverty. This situation makes even more difficult the access to the rights contemplated in the Convention, such as, the right to choose their place of residence, the right to have the necessary supports and, thus, become part of the community in equal conditions with the rest of the persons. In the case of Som – Fundació and Fundació Alosa, this supposes 35% of the total of 752 persons under their support.

Another significant and worrying data in the Study is that, “in spite of the fact that most of the persons are in special centres of employment and that there has been an increase in the percentage of persons that have an ordinary employment, we see that 15 % of the persons under our support have no employment at all”, states Irene Yepes, director of AEFT. In the case of the Catalan entities this percentage is lower, 7 %.

On the other hand, and although there is an evident increase in the number of the persons who lead an independent life,  35 % in the case of catalan guardianship Foundations, “most of the persons we attend are institutionalised. This situation may answer to the lack or impossibility of access to other resources, to supervened situations, or to a decision made by the very person. “We are going to go on analysing the cause and working in order to offer opportunities to the persons who wish to live in another type of home”, explains Yepes.

The study also collects, for the first time, the number of persons under the support of the guardianship entities who have suffered situations of abuse or violence, reaching up to 10% of the population, including violence of gender; 19 % in the case of the persons attended by Som-Fundació and Fundació Alosa. “This situation has brought about, among others, the creation of Rights Observatory to detect cases of abuse or violence and give them an effective answer in the whole network”, the director of AEFT explains.

A positive data is the identification of a change of tendency in the type of sentences in the processes of modification of capacity. During the last years, we have been observing, in the new charges assumed by the entities, a reduction of the number of guardianships compared with the number of curatorships, being the latter more adapted to the supports and needs of the persons, and therefore, suitable to the Convention.

Finally, this study – the third published by the Association, and the only one that identifies the profile of the persons with intellectual disability or development with the capacity judicially modified – focuses on the necessity of keeping improving the recognition and public coverage of the services of support to the juridical capacity, and insists on “”carrying out the adequate mechanisms that guarantee the recognition and sustainability of the services of support to the juridical capacity of the persons with intellectual disability, eliminating the differences among the Autonomic Communities, in order to avoid inequalities to the citizens in the access and guaranty of these services, Yepes indicates. As a conclusion, we can affirm that during this year and through the Observatory of Rights of the entity that has been developed, as well as the study thanks to the subsidy originated by the 7 % of IRPF, “we have continued working in the recollection and analysis of the situation of the persons under our support and their entities, after having realised that has been seriously affected by the crisis generated by COVID-19.

Access to the Study

Share