• Cerebral palsy. "People with functional diversity continue to exist, despite the coronavirus"

An empty swimming pool.

Stacked floatation corks and balls neatly on a shelf with no one to use them.

It is the metaphor that perfectly describes the situation caused by the coronavirus in the

residence for people with intellectual disabilities Gormaget

, located in the municipality of Alcoy (Alicante) and in which 41 residents and their caregivers currently coexist.

Its director,

Fernando Cordero

, shows with some resignation one of his most precious resources, which he especially values ​​given his training as a physiotherapist.

However, the health crisis forced the pool to be closed during confinement and weeks later, led to it being emptied "at least for the moment," he says with a half smile.

The empty pool, metaphor of the situation that the center is going through

It is not the only thing that has changed: the threat of the pandemic has completely transformed the structure of the center.

Although previously the residents were already organized by "homes", they always ended up mixing in activities, according to their different capacities or in common areas motivated by friendly relationships.

"All this has to be broken and in a moment you must evaluate who goes home more, who does it less, who has a larger family network ... All this to

create bubble groups and make sure that nobody goes out or in

."

For the same reason, residents can no longer coincide in activities, so we try to group those who have a greater affinity, with all that this entails.

Fernando Cordero underlines the awareness and collaboration of everyone, residents and workers.

"Those who can wear a mask do so at all times, especially after an outing. It is true that there are always distractions but in general they are doing very well."

Regarding the schedules, he acknowledges that before they had wider sleeves with the shifts to go down to eat, for showers or transfers.

"Now we

operate almost like a barracks

. At nine o'clock these come down, at nine-five the others ... we try not to get together because the main thing is that the bubble group does not break and thus avoid any possibility of contagion."

Activity in one of the GormagetD.M residence workshops.

Despite the efforts made to make the boys and girls of the Gormaget residence feel at home, the director acknowledges that the most difficult thing is being uprooted from the family.

Many returned home almost every weekend, but since the start of the pandemic none have done so

, since overnight stays outside the center must be at least seven days and the protocol subsequently requires isolation, which does that many families think about it.

"We did not have a specific infrastructure to do this isolation, so we have planned it in a gym, which is conditioned but is not the best place either."

If it is allowed, it is for residents to visit their homes but without staying overnight, which adds another piece to the puzzle and forces the center to comply with complementary hygiene measures, such as changes of clothes, showers, etc.

Visits have been reinforced but are limited to one family member per resident

It is already noon and while the activity of the residence shifts to the workshops, a visit is being held outside.

Diego's father is sitting across from him at a patio table and encourages him to say hello to María, one of the monitors, but the boy is more concerned about calling his mother.

"

We have visits every day but now they can only be from one person,

" explains the head of the center.

"We make up for this lack with many more videoconferences and telephone calls, in addition to the outings we can do, although we have also restricted them. A colleague has a bar and reserves part of a terrace with differentiated tables and chairs for the boys, but the output is He limits himself to arriving, having his Coca-Cola and coming back. Apart from that, some way out to the mountain, we take advantage of the natural setting that surrounds us and little else. Obviously it is not the same as before but we try to make it the closest thing, "he adds Fernando Cordero.

Reception of the occupational center and day center gormaget.DM

About fifty meters separate the residence from the other two day care resources managed in Gormaget by the

Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities of Alcoy (Aspromin): the day center and the occupational center

.

Their director,

Concha Gandía,

has been in charge of both for decades but admits that she had never experienced a situation like the one that forced them to close the doors in March 2020. "We spent, practically on the same day, going from workshop to workshop teaching how to sneeze and how we were going to wash our hands better than we were already doing to send everyone home and close the facilities. It was a

shock

. "

Management and workers lived the following days trying to adapt to the changing and numerous regulations of the Conselleria and

trying not to break communication with the 85 people

who day by day go to these centers and with their respective families.

Today, Raúl is in charge of the work of the green brigade.

"The first problem that arose is that people did not understand that their routine was going to end, that it would arrive on Monday and they would not go anywhere. This, although it may not seem like it, is something very serious and for that reason, each monitor took charge to contact the group of people in his charge and with the relatives ".

From here, a line of communication was established through WhatsApp to avoid isolation and allow feedback, a system that was improving and growing.

"

We went on to ask them to send us videos, drawings ... and the imagination was fired

."

Thanks to information and communication technologies, a lot of activity could be maintained throughout the confinement process and the use of mobile phones was even implemented for people who did not have one.

The occupational task barely subsists with some assignments.

Only in one case did the situation become untenable.

"A family had to request a safe-conduct to be able to move in the middle of a State of Alarm to a second residence, even outside the Valencian Community, because they could not keep their relative at home any longer. Here we must highlight the disposition of the Department of Equality and Inclusive Policies, since the general director herself provided them with this permission, "he says.

With the arrival of the de-escalation, it would soon become clear that

the most complicated was yet to come

.

Reopening the day center and the occupational center meant designing a

care plan

in which those in charge had to reflect how they were going to act in the different phases, until reaching the "new normal" and always with the 'tagline' of "masks and social distance at all times ".

Activity in one of the workshops of the occupational center.

This conditioned the distribution of the spaces and above all, of the capacity and

although the demand is currently 100%, the coverage does not reach that expectation

.

"We have people with low tolerance to the mask, in other cases wearing it is detrimental due to their respiratory problems and in general, everyone needs mask breaks at certain times. This has led us to make the determination to split the service users in two groups whose bubble is the bus that picks them up and that is organized according to the two routes with which we cover the north and south of the region ".

Thus,

two groups (of 42 and 43 people respectively)

go up to Gormaget from Monday to Thursday on alternate days and also go separately on a Friday and on another.

In this way, they take turns in weeks of three and two days.

Despite being considered the most viable solution and the only one that helps preserve distance and safeguard security, those responsible know that it is not ideal.

"It goes against the very spirit of service, since

the fundamental objective of our day to day has been broken: to promote socialization

", says Concha Gandía.

Some commissions are still being carried out but the occupational task has decreased significantly.

It is the main concern now: to

alleviate the disconnection

that the

absences

of classmates

foster

and to mitigate the psychological effect that

discontinuous lack

causes in the kids

.

"The coexistence between the members of the same bubble group is very good but they lack the other half, the Rummikub games after eating, the naps that filled the gym with mats ... That feeling of group, of cohesion is missing and for us it was an important part of the quality of daily life. We don't know when we will be able to return to that and at the moment all we can do is alleviate it. "

A monitor supervises a user who is making didactic use of a tabletD.M.

This situation is experienced daily by

Mari Àngels Carbonell

, Mireia's mother, a user of the day care center.

"Due to my health, when Mireia stays at home I have to find someone else to help me shower, have breakfast and go for a walk. She doesn't have much of a problem because she lives in her own world but she needs to socialize."

Concha Gandía nods.

"Families are desperate on the days that the kids can't come. That's why we are putting homework on them, giving them some motivation so that they feel that what they do has value. The

outings of small leisure groups on

weekends

are

also

recovering.

Although with more restricted hours, they go out for a walk, to have a snack ... and that is fine.

We cannot take away more rights

and we must provide them with alternatives because this is going to last, "he adds.

The use of new technologies has also helped a lot in the occupational centerE.M.

Something that has also stopped short are the commissions that were the basis of the work in the Gormaget occupational center workshops: advertising claims, wedding or communion details on which they worked daily.

"The occupational task has been decontextualized and we have had to reconvert it into another type of more playful activity, more of

cognitive stimulation

, influencing awareness and active resilience".

For this, new technologies are being very useful, which are also used to promote individual leisure.

And they are even

thinking about using Skype so that the users of the residence can communicate with those of the day center and the occupational center

, since many are friends and notice that separation.

One of the occupational workshops still in full operation DM

The president of Aspromin,

Ramón Cerdà

, highlights the "bestial" problem that the health crisis generates in many families, especially in those with people dependent on their parents or siblings.

"The residence and the centers are also part of our families and although the visitation system or the exits are restricted, everyone is making a great effort, so you

have to follow the indications of the law and take it in the best possible way

", Add.

However, it is clear that these people are "unique" and that it is worth fighting for them because

"they are everything to us

.

"

Aspromin's board of directors and those responsible for the residence and the occupational center and day center meet every two weeks.

"People with disabilities

are the great losers

in this crisis because socially they are not the most favored nor do they have a deployment of community resources. A person with intellectual disability does not have the same options and possibilities to generate alternatives and cognitive resistance to the obstacles that they overtake him. And the families are making an immense effort to compensate, just like us.

That is the key and the challenge: these boys and girls need emotional compensation for everything they have lost,

"adds the director of the center.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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