Professionals in homes for people with disabilities have also been on the front lines throughout the pandemic.
They remind society that the virus has not disappeared and that they continue to accompany people with disabilities, who have been largely forgotten during these months.
Madrid | January 19, 2021
Envera participates in the campaign 'As close as ever', along with other entities and Plena Inclusión Madrid, to make visible the extraordinary effort made by social entities that manage residential care resources for people with intellectual disabilities and their professionals to maintain quality care during the most difficult months of the pandemic caused by COVID-19. The campaign aims to highlight the work carried out in these resources so that the quality of life of their residents with intellectual or developmental disabilities is not affected by the social, health and economic crisis.
In this way, people with intellectual disabilities, their families, professionals and volunteers offer their testimony of the commitment, integrity and responsibility of the organizations of the associative movement both in their regular activity and in an extraordinary situation such as that of the last few months.
As recalled by the professionals themselves, the residential spaces where people with intellectual disabilities live, overcame the most complicated moments of the pandemic without sufficient protection material and with a limited staff of professionals, being resources of purely social and not health care. For this reason, the support of companies, organizations and volunteers was fundamental in the first weeks to be able to attend to all the people safely.
Envera cares for 83 people with intellectual or developmental disabilities in its four residences in Madrid and Colmenar Viejo (two residences for adults, a residence for people with high support needs and a residence for people over 45 years of age with premature aging) where quality care was maintained despite the confinement decreed by the state of alarm and the limitations imposed by prevention in the following months.
Heroes and their stories
Sergio Gallardo is coordinator of the Envera Residence with Occupational Center in Madrid and talks about how the professionals of Support and Care Services faced the most complicated moments of the pandemic, making special reference to the work in residences for people with disabilities and leaves an important warning to society: the virus has not disappeared and professionals continue to accompany people with intellectual disabilities.
During the first weeks of March, the support given to Envera by numerous companies such as Iberia, Nuveen Real Estate, Islazul, Nivea, Leroy Merlin, Solidarios EMT, FEMADDI and the Pablo Horstmann Foundation was essential to obtain health and protection material. Volunteers also played a very important role in dealing with this crisis.
In addition, more than 200 celebrities and nearly thirty digital volunteers joined Envera to send their support to people with intellectual disabilities between March and June.
For her part, Rosa Ollero, coordinator of the Envera Residence with Day Center for People with Great Support Needs, assures that COVID-19 "was a very big change for the beneficiaries and professionals". She explains how the fear of the first months has been transformed into experience and, in the last few weeks, into hope with the arrival of the vaccine which is starting to be supplied these days.
Katy de los Reyes is the physician coordinator of health care at Envera's Support and Care Services. Together with her team, she watches over the health of more than 150 people in residences and day care centers in Madrid and Colmenar Viejo. But during the closure of the occupational and day care centers decreed by the state of alarm, her main concern was the residents who remain under Envera's care 24 hours a day: 83 people with intellectual disabilities, including adults, the elderly and major dependents.
From the first preventive measures, to coordination with health authorities, to direct care, Katy has been Envera's guardian angel. This is her story
There are many stories of Envera's professionals, such as that of María del Carmen Rodríguez, who set up a handmade mask workshop when there was nothing else to protect herself with. People who have been on the front line since March and who today continue to face the third wave.
The professionals of the residences for people with disabilities have overcome fear and uncertainty with their work and their vocation of service. They have shown that they are #TanCercaComoSiempre.
