LifeCompanion, a customisable assistant for people who have difficulty communicating orally

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LifeCompanion, a customisable assistant for people who have difficulty communicating orally

Centre Mutualiste de Kerpape

Assistive Technology 1

Personalised digital assistant that provides communication assistance and access to information technologies. It is free and open source and facilitates oral communication for people with difficulties.

LifeCompanion is a highly customisable and flexible assistant, so it can be used in different contexts, but it is mainly intended to facilitate computer access and communication. In fact, one of the outstanding features of LifeCompanion is its integrated speech synthesis, which allows users to communicate using speech. LifeCompanion thus aims to promote the social participation and autonomy of its users in areas such as communication, access to information technologies, education and employment. It also contributes to establishing social links, especially with caregivers and professionals close to them.

LifeCompanion works in such a way that it adjusts to the individual’s motor, visual, auditory or cognitive abilities and development. For example, it enables pictographic and phonetic communication, as it includes a vocabulary tree with pictograms and pictures and a customised phoneme communication keyboard. Digital keyboards can also be customised and typing can be accelerated with advanced word prediction. Among other functions, LifeCompanion also facilitates motor accessibility, anticipating movement and with advanced configurations in this area. In this regard, it is important to note that it has been co-designed by and in close collaboration with end users.

Rural Care, innovation in care for rural dependents 

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Rural Care, innovation in care for rural dependents 

Castilla y León Social Services, Junta de Castilla y León, Diputación provincial de Valladolid, Fundation Persones, Plena inclusión Castilla y León, European Social Network

An innovative project that offers social support, health care and opportunities for participation in the community to people with dependency, disability or chronic illness living in rural areas. It aims to enable people to remain at home with security, quality of life and dignity, maintaining their life project and daily routine. 

rural care asistencia mayores

In rural areas, which in recent years have been dominated by an ageing population, families, communities and volunteers play a crucial role in well-being. The Rural Care project stems from the desire to ensure active ageing around the home and is based on the premise that community participation is essential. This initiative is implemented in the province of Valladolid, in a rural context. Thus, this project, which is part of a European initiative for innovation in social services, is designed for people who are in situations of dependency and require constant support and care. 

In this sense, the aim is to guarantee the dignity of people, ensuring their autonomy and respecting their preferences and wishes. Rural Care also focuses on the families and carers of the project participants, providing them with support to reconcile care tasks with personal, social and working life, as well as to ensure their own health.  

This project stands out for its multi-level partnership of public and private actors, as well as for the coordination of social and health services at different levels. The Support Plan developed for each project participant includes different professionals: a coordinator, a case manager, a reference professional at home and in the community, among others. Among the support actions, it is worth highlighting that the home is also adapted and a personalised community participation programme is designed. In this sense, it is worth highlighting the fact that one of the project’s objectives is to dynamise the rural territory, local occupation, community involvement and social cohesion. 

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

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Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Catalan Government, Save The Children

A pioneering integrated unit in Catalonia and Spain, made up of a specialised multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to avoid the re-victimisation of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse and to provide all the necessary care in a single space.

Barnahus is a project to help children and young people –from 0 to 18 years of age– who have suffered sexual abuse and to prevent aggression against minors. It puts the victim of sexual abuse at the centre, working in a single space with all the care services they need and minimising the traumatic experience of reliving the aggression. This avoids victims having to go through courts, police stations, hospitals and children’s services. It is promoted by Save the Children and is supported by five Catalan government departments, mainly the Social Rights department, but in coordination with the Health, Education, Justice and Interior departments.

Barnahus has a welcoming and friendly appearance to provide security, comfort and confidence to children and their families. There are separate rooms to preserve privacy, a kitchen-dining room, offices and a medical examination room. The psychosocial team –consisting of psychologists and social workers with a coordinator– works full time, 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and also offers translation services.

Mixed Living, residents who live with and collaborate with highly vulnerable people

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Mixed Living, residents who live with and collaborate with highly vulnerable people

Tussenvoorziening

Mixed social housing blocks of flats where homeless and economically vulnerable people live together, which is beneficial for both groups. It facilitates access to housing more quickly for many people while the community activities carried out in the buildings promote social reintegration and break down the social isolation and stigmatisation of homeless people.

Mixed Living is a form of housing in which 70% of the people who live there are on low incomes and in need of social housing and the remaining 30% are people who are vulnerable, usually homeless people who are beneficiaries of the Housing First programme. Both parties must comply with the previously established conditions of commitment and rules, mainly regarding the care of the environment they share. Participating in this social accompaniment programme is advantageous for people in the first group, reducing their waiting time for access to social housing.

It is also clearly favourable for homeless people —and not only, because the programme is also aimed at people with a lack of social network or psychological problems— for whom the contact and cohabitation with other residents facilitates their social reintegration. In this sense, the shared housing enables proximity between the two groups with common meeting spaces that make it easier for them to have coffee, watch a football match or look after the courtyard. The project is supervised by professionals who visit the block of flats at least once a week and are responsible for assessing and managing the functioning of the cohabitation.

iCalidad, a technological tool for the quality of life of people with ASD

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iCalidad, a technological tool for the quality of life of people with ASD

Red para la Calidad de Vida, Autismo España

Assessment and support tool to improve the quality of life of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their families. With an innovative methodology, the aspects that most affect the quality of life of a person are assessed and individualised support plans are designed, adapted to the needs, interests and expectations.

iCalidad is, therefore, a collaborative technological tool that corresponds to a system for assessing the quality of life of people with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It was born out of the realisation that the assessment of this disorder is subjective and that the assessment instruments are often not adapted to the reality of the people who suffer from it, as pointed out by the advances in knowledge that show that ASD manifests itself in a very specific way in each case.

It is flexible and works in such a way that the perspective of the person with ASD is integrated into the design of their own plan, as are the families and professionals who know them best. These people constitute the evaluation team and respond individually to a questionnaire formulated by iCalidad. The technological tool systematises and compares, and also generates a quality report that integrates the responses of all the team members. It is the team that is responsible for evaluating it together with the aim of designing –by consensus– a personalised and optimal support plan.

Thus, iCalidad enables people with ASD to participate in making decisions about their lives and to achieve meaningful personal goals. It also enables families and professionals to collaborate and offer appropriate support to the person with the disorder. Finally, iQuality enables organisations to provide quality support and to respond –appropriately and innovatively– to the priorities, interests and needs of people with ASD.

Mano, an app for social professionals working on the streets and in shelters

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Mano, an app for social professionals working on the streets and in shelters

Associació AURORE

Free app that facilitates and helps to improve the work of public service professionals working with vulnerable people, on the street and in sheltered areas.

Mano is a freely accessible application for smartphones that allows workers to continuously and closely monitor the people they follow during reception procedures and activities. It also has a web interface for computers. It thus makes it possible to complete and consult the medical-social files of these people, avoiding the loss of information and the need to constantly renew it. In addition, it also allows workers and their respective teams to have all tasks grouped together –those already carried out and planned– and to be alerted to future deadlines and commitments. It also automatically generates anonymous statistics and reports.

All of this guarantees the protection of the data of the people accompanied, which are encrypted and only the people who form part of the monitoring team have access to them. In fact, Mano’s functionalities have been specially conceived and designed by the users who use them and, for this reason, the tool is constantly being improved. The users have been trained by Mano, both on the streets and in the reception areas, as well as in telephone assistance.

EAVA, integral service against elder abuse

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EAVA, integral service against elder abuse

Regional Council of Anoia

Service specialised in the detection and accompaniment of elderly people in the county of Anoia. Promoted and financed by the Consell Comarcal, the aim of the team is to detect and prevent situations of abuse, on the one hand, and to offer multidisciplinary care to protect and reduce the possible damage caused in these situations, on the other.

The Anoia Elderly Care Team (EAVA) is a pioneering public service in Europe that makes visible and tackles a problem that is gaining strength in the context of generalised population ageing. According to the World Health Organisation, 15% of people over the age of 65 suffer abuse, although the official data do not reflect this figure because reporting is rare.

The service is mainly aimed at elderly people who are known or suspected of suffering situations of abuse –physical, psychological, sexual or economic or derived from abandonment, negligence, self-neglect and violation of rights– both at home and in institutions. According to the statistics presented by the EAVA, elder abuse is feminised –more than 75% of the cases are women– and the aggressors are mostly children and non-professional carers.

The team is multidisciplinary; it is composed by a network of experts from different fields to offer a comprehensive view of the situation. It coordinates on a daily basis with the professionals who care for the elderly to detect suspicions and emergencies and prevent abuse. It also advises, assesses and intervenes on a case-by-case basis. Generally, the unit opts for mediation rather than legal action, although if it does so, it offers the elderly accompaniment before the courts. However, the direction of the service is not unidirectional: any professional in the field of social services, social entities and health services can request the team’s service and jointly coordinate individualised care.

Thus, the EAVA highlights the need for co-operation between a wide co-ordinated network to detect and take action against elder abuse. The collaboration is intended to be comprehensive and to go beyond social services, including notaries and bank offices in the county useful for detecting financial abuse. In this sense, given that the membership and impact of the team’s actions require efficient coordination, the EAVA has provided training to health personnel, social service workers, judges and regional police officers.

Confidant, an application for remote care of children and the elderly

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Confidant, an application for remote care of children and the elderly

Confidant

A technological tool that facilitates the care of people who need regular care or supervision, especially dependent elderly people and minors. It reduces the worry and anguish of not being able to locate loved ones and allows vulnerability to be addressed through innovative technology.

The Confidant app works in such a way that it allows access to mobile devices –phones, smart watches, tablets, etc.– of the people to be cared for. It makes it possible to geolocate them in real time and contact them easily to ensure their well-being at all times. In addition, the app has several functions that can be configured: obtaining a record of activity –of the applications consulted, calls made and sites visited by the controlled device–, partial blocking –of certain applications– or total blocking of the device, preventing the linked device from being switched off and receiving notifications in the event that it has a low battery level, among others. It also has an anti-theft function, allowing the user to know the location in real time and to avoid a forced shutdown of the device.

It is, therefore, a highly personalised tool, adaptable to the diverse needs –mainly depending on age– of the confidants or people receiving care. Confidant can be especially useful for educating children to make good use of technology and avoid situations of cyberbullying. In the case of older people, the option of a smart watch may be relevant for people who are not used to the use of new technologies.

Confidant is easy to download and allows a one-week free trial. It guarantees security, privacy and transparency. To avoid potential misuse, the app cannot be installed in stealth: whenever it is activated, a notification is sent to the monitored device. In this sense, it allows the option to activate these functions only in case of emergency, only when the person does not respond to several calls.

Scottish national program to help implement Self-Directed Support

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Scottish national program to help implement Self-Directed Support

Social Work Scotland

National program to facilitate the implementation of the Self-Directed Support intervention model in local social services in Scotland’s municipalities. It aims to bridge the gap between the regulatory framework and the day-to-day practice of Social Services by providing guidance and support to overcome the challenges faced by social professionals in implementing the model..

Self-Directed Support is a model for accompanying people who are served by Social Services, with a focus on support in decision making. The aim is for people to have control and power of choice over the actions or support plans aimed at improving their living conditions, based on their demands and their rights. Within this approach, this Social Work Scotland program aims to ensure that social workers are able to implement the model based on the principles, perspective and values of human rights. The aim is to empower social workers to be autonomous in implementing the model with each person served.

The program has three main lines of action. First, to promote the autonomy of social professionals in the implementation of the model through the definition of standards and training and advisory activities aimed at improving social intervention. Secondly, to provide a community of practice where public professionals and community entities can learn together to find solutions to the challenges posed by the implementation of the Self-Directed Support model. And finally, to energize a collaborative Scottish network of all public and private stakeholders to contribute to the development of the Scottish national Self-Directed Support framework.

Within this national framework, a library of tools, resources and practical examples for practitioners is provided. In addition, the program is working to get personal assistants recognized as members of the social care workforce, and to bring about changes in the Scottish legal framework to facilitate effective implementation of the model.


The Access Hub, a multi-institutional support center for homeless people

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The Access Hub, a multi-institutional support center for homeless people

Simon Community

An innovative multi-institutional counseling and support center for homeless people. It is a space designed to ensure that users feel that their well-being is a priority and to make it easier for them to obtain the accompaniment and support they need.

The key to the center is the participation of more than 20 organizations, all of which offer their services under one roof. This removes many bureaucratic barriers that often hinder access to critical services. In addition, the organizations’ partners are in contact and work more efficiently, offering solutions with multiple viewpoints, even in the most difficult circumstances. Users can access more than 40 supports provided by a wide range of experts, from financial and legal support, to digital, health or wellness advice.

Just walking into the building, the user meets a person instead of a reception desk. The goal is to offer a space of connection and tranquility, giving a welcoming and comfortable feeling to ensure a safe and comfortable place. To achieve this feeling, the space has high quality furniture and finishes. Colors are chosen in a way that is not over the top, but with originality and awareness.

The center hopes to break the mold of the usual service delivery by offering a space that is easily accessible, modern and adapted to the needs of the users.