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HOME
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What we
do
The peculiar
characteristics of assistance at
home are the
personal relationship, the gratuity, the continuity, the flexibility, the
team work and the deployment of all the resources available.
Genova - Italy
The personal relationship:
Friendship,
expresses as closeness, is the
way that allowed us to penetrate deeply into the world
of the elderly that we met not as a category of �assisted
people� but as persons. The building up of
a mature personal relationship, relationship of mutual fidelity is the essential
premise to every action because it allows us to
understand individuals not as a member of
a category but as persons with their special story. Through friendship and
personal relations it is possible to
obtain
that meeting between different generations that would be
impossible or difficult otherwise.
Gratuity:
Gratuity distinguishes this friendship that never
looks for
a personal interest and has no other aim besides
the good of others. It is precisely gratuity that generates an approach
without precedence that does not judge, that is faithful
and patient, that does not look for an immediate result
or a personal return. It
allows to consider needs and desires of the individual not
according to an institutionalised approach nor pre-codified or general
answers.
Roma - Italy
Continuity:
The presence of the Sant�Egidio Community in the elderly world
is characterised above all by a continuity of the
relationship with the elderly that is never �discharged�. We have come to know many elderly and we have
followed them for over fifteen / twenty years. The constant and continuous
relationship between the aged
and the young has become, in fact, a fundamental characteristic of our service.
Often in going through old age, the elderly experiment,
with the deterioration of their physical being, a
shift from a public service to another and are forced to change important
reference points at the most critical times.
Continuity is for the elderly a guarantee to live longer. The lasting character of friendship over the years is often valued
as the only indispensable point of reference on occasion
of moments of crises and difficulties.
Flexibility:
Continuity also requires being available and the ability to modify
and adapt our help in time according to the
changing situation of the elderly. This flexibility allows us
to respond immediately to diverse needs. For example our presence
in case of necessity can become available 24 hours.
Team Work:
No volunteer, even if he has a close personal relationship with the elderly,
acts alone. There are common moments of sharing that
allows others to come to know the personality of the elderly. In case of necessity, many people
of the Community become naturally involved.
Genova - Italy
Deployment of
all Resources
Interaction and the
co-ordination between all social forces, from informal to institutional
ones, represent decisive moments to allow the elderly
person to live in his own environment to the end.
He can count on the help of his
family but also on other services that can take
care of particular needs and on a network of many and various contacts. In
effect, those who deal with the elderly soon experiments how difficult it is
to cope alone the needs of those who are not self-sufficient. Collaboration,
co-ordination involving different kinds of assistance, creating a network of
solidarity and protective facilities offered by public services, the
help of volunteers, the family, the neighbourhood, allows easy
solutions. On the
other hand it becomes ever more easier that
the elderly becomes increasingly alone: who lives close to them are often discouraged from
intervening for fear of dealing with a too
heavy load. The elderly that has a friend or a point
of reference is an elderly that will more
easily accept other types of help. When we begin
to go and visit an elderly person,
with time we notice a conspicuous improvement of
the general quality of his relations: neighbours begin to
become available for small chores, the family becomes closer and less
anxious, and so on. A human fabric of solidarity surrounds an
isolated elderly: the gratuity of friendship is a stimulating flash of
hope for many.
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