- The General Director of Disability of the Community of Madrid visits this reference service on the occasion of its 25th anniversary
- Envera serves 33 people with intellectual disabilities and high support needs.
Madrid | January 28, 2025
The Day Center with Residence for people with intellectual disabilities and high support needs Envera 25 years of history accompanying the most vulnerable people on the journey of their lives to occupy their place in the world with dignity. This was witnessed today by Alejandra Serrano, Director General of Care for People with Disabilities of the Community of Madrid, during her visit with the president and founding father of Envera, José Antonio Quintero, and its CEO, Enrique Grande.
Thanks to this service, the entity responds to the needs of 33 adults with a high level of dependency and a disability of more than 75%. Thirteen of them also live 24 hours a day in the specialized Envera Residence, an NGO that was founded 48 years ago by Iberia and which each year cares for 5,000 people with disabilities and their families and provides stable employment for 900 professionals with disabilities.
Tal y como explica la coordinadora del Centro de Día, Rosa Ollero, la actividad en este servicio "se centra en ofrecer los apoyos necesarios para el mantenimiento y el desarrollo de las capacidades de las personas a las que atendemos y conseguir que tengan una mejor calidad de vida".
Envera's multidisciplinary team of professionals offers the necessary support to beneficiaries, using innovative approaches and methodologies such as active support, closely linked to person-centered planning and positive behavioral support as the main improvement strategies for people with disabilities.
Social integrators and social and health care technicians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, a medical team and a social worker are the second family of the people Envera serves.
"Aún teniendo múltiples necesidades de apoyo que comprometen muchos aspectos de su vida diaria, son personas que tienen sus gustos, sueños, preferencias y necesidades particulares como todos y cada uno de nosotros. Es por ello por lo que abogamos por abandonar un modelo de atención paternalista y asistencial, que se basa en las limitaciones de la persona, para implantar un modelo basado en la atención centrada en la persona, en la relación que se establece entre el profesional y el beneficiario y que acompaña a las familias en las necesidades y apoyos que requieren", apunta Ollero.
Over the last quarter of a century, this space specialized in stimulation, care, attention and development of activities has been transformed as the needs of its beneficiaries have also changed.
Precisamente, la idea de crear un Centro de Día en Envera nace, hace más de 25 años, de la propia necesidad de las personas con discapacidad intelectual y sus familias. Pilar López, beneficiaria de la Asociación e hija de un técnico de Mantenimiento de Iberia, fue la primera persona en demandar un recurso especializado que ofreciera los apoyos necesarios para quienes entonces recibían el nombre de personas con "discapacidad psíquica gravemente afectadas".
Although Pilar did not get to see its implementation, on January 18, 2000, the official opening of the Day Center with Residence took place, to which she herself gave the name of Pililó, becoming a pioneering resource located in the Envera Integral Center for Disability in Colmenar Viejo, which was inaugurated by Ana Botella and which, since then, has become a reference service throughout the Community of Madrid.
Su coordinadora cuenta cómo "a lo largo de los 25 años que lleva en funcionamiento el Centro de Día y la Residencia, el perfil de las personas a las que atendemos ha cambiado notablemente. Los que continúan desde el principio con nosotros han envejecido y las nuevas incorporaciones tienen unas características diferentes".
That is why in 2019 the decision was made to carry out a deep reform of the facilities to adapt the spaces and offer a comfortable place with the necessary supports to the new needs, especially focused on the care of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but without neglecting the long-lived beneficiaries.
Como si de una premonición se tratase, esta reforma permitió, con la llegada de la pandemia del COVID-19, poner en marcha un hospital de campaña en el Centro de Día, lo que "nos facilitó el aislamiento de las personas que enfermaban y poder darles, en ese momento tan complicado, una mejor atención médica", recuerda Ollero.
Another challenge for professionals is to respond to the needs of people who have grown older over the years. Some of the beneficiaries are in a process of aging, although places are also allocated to younger people, generating totally different care objectives and with their own needs and characteristics.
This is the case of José Carlos Zazo, or Pepe as his colleagues call him, who has been at Envera for 25 years and is the oldest member of the Day Center at 67. On the other hand, Lucía Gallego is, at 21, the youngest at the Center.
Currently, the Day Center has a technical team that jointly assesses the cognitive profile and the socio-familial and psychological characteristics of each person.
It also has an occupational and physiotherapy classroom where joint mobilizations are performed to maintain joint range; inhibition of reflex postural patterns in order to normalize movements; orthopedic manual therapy; training in the use of the standing frame; specific neurological therapies; as well as gymnastics and fine motor work.
The workshop classroom serves 13 people with a more autonomous profile and greater communication skills, developing different activities aimed at increasing personal autonomy and encouraging participation in different areas, facilitating motivating, fun and attractive learning.
Ante la demanda social y la necesidad de la Comunidad de Madrid de atender a las personas con TEA y grandes necesidades de apoyo, en 2022 Envera pone en marcha el proyecto piloto "Aula TEA" dentro del Centro de Día, un espacio adaptado y con personal formado específicamente.
Alternative and Augmentative Communication Systems (AACS), such as the Benson Schaefer program, pictograms, etc., are used in each classroom, and technologies such as tablets are used to enhance the skills of the beneficiaries.
In addition, other activities such as adapted sports, music therapy and dog-assisted intervention are carried out, as well as outings and excursions outside the center in order to achieve two of the main objectives: integral development and increased social participation.
These daytime activities, which change throughout the months, continue in the afternoons and weekends at the Residence, where they are adapted to the residents' preferences. Handicrafts, theater or yoga are some of the proposals that are carried out in what today has become the home of the thirteen people with great support needs who live in Envera.
Para el presidente de Envera, "los 25 años del Centro de Día ejemplifican el compromiso de Envera con los más vulnerables, así como el espíritu de aquellos padres y madres, empleados de Iberia, que hace casi 50 años creímos que un mundo mejor para nuestros hijos con discapacidad era posible. Gracias a los profesionales que les acompañáis a la vera de sus vidas por dar continuidad a ese sueño".
