- A team of 31 professionals promotes the personal autonomy and self-care of patients to continue living at home, while helping families and caregivers who are dependent people.
- It is accredited by SEPAD and the objective is to reach a greater number of people who require this service, especially the elderly, with chronic illnesses, dementia and depression, and also single people with some degree of dependency.
The home care service Ribera Almendralejo Hospital provides domestic care, personal care and psychological and rehabilitative support to a total of 135 people in this town in Extremadura, under an agreement with the Almendralejo City Council for the management of this service. "Our goal is to provide the personal resources and tools necessary to promote the autonomy of these patients and help them stay as long as possible in their usual environment, at home," explains Patricia Alfageme, social worker and coordinator of the service who, in addition , is accredited by the SEPAD (Extremadura Service for the Promotion and Care of Dependent Persons) to provide the service to those people recognized as dependents by the Dependency Law and who request it. With this profile, the Ribera Almendralejo home care service currently serves 22 people.
The objective is to expand this service to reach a greater number of people who need home care, beyond the municipal agreement, uniting the experience of the professionals of Ribera Almendralejo and that of the care management of the Ribera health group, which has hospitalization units and home care in most of its hospitals.
Patricia Alfageme, social worker and coordinator of the service, assures that the Ribera healthcare group"intends to detect in this service those needs that may entail a loss in personal autonomy and collaborate in the maintenance of the functional and cognitive capacities of the user". "The service also provides a series of psychosocial and educational care and integration of the community where the user lives," he adds. That is why help is not only provided with household chores that the patient cannot take care of, such as shopping, laundry, food preparation, or home maintenance. The Ribera Almendralejo Home Care service team, made up of 31 professionals, helps with hygiene and personal hygiene tasks, dressing and undressing the user, moving them inside or outside the home, helping immobilized people change posture or facilitate accompaniment to medical visits, among many other tasks.
Patricia Alfageme explains that this service is intended for those individuals or families who need support in carrying out the basic activities of daily life. “We have many elderly people, and the high number of elderly women stands out, with health problems related to this segment of the population, such as chronic diseases such as diabetes or osteoarthritis, but also dementia and depression”, she explains. Some are moderately dependent and require only part-time care, and others need help with various basic activities of daily living, at least once a day. “Our objective is to improve their quality of life, promote their autonomy and avoid risk situations, in addition to observing and detecting needs that may arise in their environment and channeling them to community resources, such as social services, health centers or our hospital”, explains the coordinator of the service, who at the same time values the service as “a resource that serves as relief and relief for the family”.
The Ribera Almendralejo Hospital currently has outpatient Cardiology, Ophthalmology, General or Family Medicine and General Surgery, as well as a Covid testing service and 40 hospital beds for medium and long-stay patients.
