DISS Alt Pirineu-Aran will implement the Basque Tecnoadineko system developed by iSocial member Agintzari in the 6 counties of the Pyrenees.

This is a 3-year project (2023-2025) led by the iSocial Foundation, which has been financed by the Next Generation funds of the Department of Social Rights of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and its objective is the Detection and Early Intervention of Situations of Loneliness (DISS) of the elderly in the 6 counties of the Alt Pirineu-Aran region: Alt Urgell, Cerdanya, Vall d’Aran, Pallars Sobirà, Pallars Jussà and Alta Ribagorça.

The detection and care of situations of loneliness of the elderly is today a concern and a priority objective for the basic social services of the six Pyrenean counties, given that the Alt Pirineu-Aran concentrates the three most over-aged counties in Catalonia, while the other three counties of the vegueria are above the Catalan average. At the same time, Alt Pirineu-Aran is the vegueria with the highest rate of single-person households, almost 1/3 of the total, well above the rest of the vegueries and the average for Catalonia.

The DISS Alt Pirineu-Aran project aims to solve this serious need for social services in the six counties, which to date do not have sufficient resources, adequate tools or a clear methodology to deal with it. And it proposes to solve it by piloting, implementing and evaluating the Basque “Tecnoadineko” system, a technology and community-based system that has proved effective and successful in six mountain municipalities in Guipúzcoa over the last eight years, developed by Agintzari and Gislan with the support of the BBK and the European Union, and which is based on combining a traditional asset of the mountain regions, such as community care, with technological innovation, to place both at the service of the most fragile population.

The project is promoted by a group led by the iSocial Foundation, which also includes the six county councils of Alt Pirineu and Aran (Alt Urgell, Pallars Sobirà, Pallars Jussà, La Cerdanya, Alta Ribagorça and Vall d’Aran), the University of Lleida and three third sector organisations active in these counties: the Alba Jussà Cooperative, the Integra Pirineos Foundation and the ABD Association. The Institute for the Development and Promotion of the Alt Pirineu-Aran (IDAPA), and the two Basque organisations that have developed the Tecnoadineko system: the cooperative group Agintzari, and the technology company Gislan, are also collaborating.

On 6 June, a kick-off meeting was held with the coordinators of social services of the 6 participating County Councils, the organisations Alba Jussà, ABD and Integra Pirineos Foundation, and the chair of social innovation of the University of Lleida.