As many traditional services in the health care and human services arena are struggling or failing, co-operatives are increasingly stepping in to fill the gaps.
As many traditional services in the health care and human services arena are struggling or failing, co-operatives are increasingly stepping in to fill the gaps, says Laura Peracaula Basagana, deputy director, Suara Cooperativa, the largest care services co-operative in Catalonia, Spain.
This fall, Ms. Basagana will share her expertise in a forum on demographic growth and an aging population at the International Summit of Cooperatives. "The demand for personal services is growing due to an increasing life expectancy," says Ms. Basagana, adding that this comes at a time when public funding for financing welfare policies have seen significant reductions, especially in the countries of southern Europe.
"All this worsens with high unemployment rates (25 per cent of registered unemployment in Spain) that are reducing the economic contributions to the Social Security Administration and are increasing people's needs," Ms. Basagana explains. She believes that the partial withdrawal of public sector solutions multiplies the importance of the answers that come from civil society, across benefit society services and services from collaborative organizations. Suara Cooperativa aims to improve people's quality of life, says Ms. Basagana, and that includes services that allow extending the stay of a person in his or her own home by providing personal care, cleaning, social and tele-caring services.
"We also offer these services in supervised apartments," she adds. "When people start losing autonomy, they have access to day centres and, finally, to assisted-living facilities with various specializations in dementia, functional recovery treatments, etc."
Technology can help deliver the services, according to Ms. Basagana, who mentions home automation systems (domotics) with motion sensors in the home to health control telematic tools and titanium skeletons for people with reduced mobility or Alzheimer's patients.
For co-operations to succeed in health care and social services, a high level of professionalism is required, says Ms. Basagana. "The way to minimize [risk] begins with a good strategy, good management and the incorporation of financial partners who want to invest their money in projects with economic and social return.
Another key element is to constantly reinvest the surpluses generated in the co-operative." As the co-operative becomes financially stronger, the exposure to certain risks is minimized, Ms. Basagana says, and that, in turn, serves as a guarantee for future investors.
