The new pilot will implement the NIDUS tool to support individuals with severe mental disorders in the deinstitutionalization process

The NIDUS Deinstitutionalization project has been selected in the 2nd Call of the Social and Health Innovation Hub (HISS in its Catalan acronym), which this year focuses on the challenge of Community Alternatives to Institutionalization. This project is an extension of the NIDUS application, which has so far been used to support people in precarious situations, and now aims to adapt it to the mental health field.

The NIDUS Deinstitutionalization pilot seeks to facilitate individual transitions to community life and strengthen ties to prevent, delay, or minimize the institutionalization of people with severe mental disorders, while promoting their autonomy and quality of life, aligned with the “Quality Rights” standards.

The project involves expanding the NIDUS tool, developed by iSocial since 2021 to assist people in vulnerable situations. Key features include a Virtual Safe for managing personal documents and a platform for direct communication with reference professionals, enabling continuous and personalized support. Additionally, the pilot will introduce a new 24-hour Channel, which will use a simple questionnaire to monitor the health, well-being, and potential risks of the supported individuals.

The 2nd HISS Call is part of the Transforma program, which aims to support innovative projects in the health and social care sectors, fostering their transformation and adaptation to current challenges. The NIDUS Deinstitutionalization project was selected alongside nine other initiatives and will receive tailored support over a 10-month period for its development and implementation.

With the backing of HISS, the goal of NIDUS Deinstitutionalization is to promote a person-centered care model that facilitates their transition to community life, enhances their autonomy, and reduces dependence on institutional services. Once the tool’s utility and effectiveness have been validated, it is expected to scale its use, benefiting a broader population in Catalonia affected by deinstitutionalization processes or at risk of institutionalization.

The project also involves collaboration with Pere Claver Group, Sant Joan de Déu, the Institut Pere Mata, as well as the consultancy Antares Consulting and the tech company Inqbarna, which will be responsible for app development.

The training is part of a pilot project aimed at integrating the healthcare system into the Vincles project

On September 5th, Montferrer i Castellbò hosted a training session for primary care and Sant Hospital de La Seu d’Urgell healthcare staff who serve the population of this municipality. The goal was to incorporate these professionals and the healthcare system as a whole into Vincles, a project that focuses on detecting and preventing unwanted loneliness.

This initiative is a pilot program led by the iSocial Foundation and the Alt Urgell Care Consortium, supported by the Social and Healthcare Innovation Hub (HISS). It aims to integrate the healthcare system into Vincles, which has been rolled out since last year across six regions of Alt Pirineu and Aran under the leadership of regional Social Services. The goal is to ensure that, in the future, responses to unwanted loneliness among the elderly become a sphere of integrated social and healthcare services across these six regions.

So far, the Vincles Alt Pirineu-Aran project has been driven by the Social Services of the six regions within the Alt Pirineu and Aran territories. In collaboration with them, 53 social and demographic indicators have been established, allowing the identification of potential risks of unwanted loneliness in a geolocated manner through a data analysis tool. Once risk areas are identified, Vincles intervenes by activating the community network and fostering social engagement.

With the pilot launching this week in Montferrer i Castellbò, additional health-related indicators will be incorporated into Vincles, improving accuracy in detecting loneliness risks. Furthermore, healthcare professionals will become an integral part of the support network for individuals experiencing unwanted loneliness in this municipality, both during the detection phase, using the aforementioned health indicators, and during the intervention phase, by prescribing community activities and collaborating with the Social Services teams of Montferrer i Castellbò and the Alt Urgell region.

This pilot represents a significant step in the expansion of the Vincles project and its adaptation to address loneliness from an interdisciplinary perspective, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life for people in the Alt Pirineu-Aran territories.

The seven partner organizations of the European project gather in Andorra to coordinate Solidigital’s deployment plan

On September 5th and 6th, we held the second meeting of the Solidigital project in Andorra la Vella, with the participation of seven entities from Catalonia, France, and Andorra. The aim of the meeting was to coordinate the first phase of this European project’s deployment, driven within the framework of the European Union’s cross-border collaboration program, Interreg Poctefa.

Solidigital, which aims to facilitate access to social services for people in vulnerable situations, as well as the support work of professionals assisting them, is based on the use of three innovative digital tools: Soliguia, an interactive map of social resources providing detailed information on services available in each region; our app Nidus, a virtual safe box designed to support people in precarious situations; and Reconnect’s Coffre-fort numérique, a similar tool to Nidus operating in France.

During the meeting, we had the opportunity to learn more about these three tools, address integration issues, resolve doubts, generate debate, and, above all, get to know better the team we work with daily. Moreover, thanks to our hosts, Andorra Research and Innovation, we had the chance to meet Laura Mas de la Rosa, Director of the Department of Childhood, Adolescence, and Youth, and visit the facilities of the Andorran Red Cross to gain a deeper understanding of the country’s social ecosystem.

The meeting laid the groundwork for launching the project’s first phase, which will focus on mapping social resources in each region and will be carried out in collaboration with various local social entities and institutions.

The seven entities involved in the project will carry out this task in their respective regions. On the Catalan side, the project will involve the iSocial Foundation, project leader, Resilis, Alba, and Pere Claver, along with Solinum, which will coordinate the creation of Soliguia across all regions. In Andorra, the Foundation Andorra Research and Innovation will be responsible for implementing the project, while in France, Solinum and Reconnect will participate.

The project also includes the interconnection of these three tools and a training plan for 8,000 professionals, aiming to equip them with the necessary skills to use the tools, ensuring efficient implementation and quicker access to social services for the most vulnerable populations.

Starting in September, six new municipalities in the territory are expected to be incorporated after the pilot in Monteferrer-Castellbò

Last Wednesday, July 24, we met with nineteen municipal representatives from the Alt Urgell region to explain the Vincles project. This initiative, supported by the Department of Social Rights of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the University of Lleida, and La Caixa Foundation, applies innovation to address the increase in situations of unwanted loneliness among the elderly in the Alt Pirineu and the Aran region, combining, on one hand, data science to geolocate risk areas, and on the other hand, the activation of the local community network.

The meeting, held during the Council of Mayors at Espai La Vansa (Sorribes) and wsa covered by PirineusTV, allowed us to explain the current development stage of Vincles in Alt Urgell. The first phase began with a pilot in Monteferrer-Castellbò and, starting in September, six new municipalities in the territory are expected to be incorporated.

Additionally, thanks to the support of HISS (Catalonia’s Social and Health Innovation Hub), which selected the project in its 1st Call against Unwanted Loneliness, Vincles will be expanded to study how to incorporate various data from the healthcare system and the perspective of healthcare teams in the detection and intervention processes, thus making a common and integrated social and healthcare approach possible.

Watch the news coverage of the meeting in PirineusTV (in Catalan)