Desperate. That's how Isabel Gerez, a resident of Arrecife, feels, who has decided to start a petition to demand a "fast and efficient" Dependency Law, after waiting nine months for the review of her father's degree. "The Dependency Law is very slow and I am in a critical situation," says this woman.
According to her, her father is 86 years old and she has been taking care of him for 12 years, since in addition to the deterioration of age, he has "residual schizophrenia, Parkinson's" and has had "a prostate tumor." "He has already been granted grade I dependency and has a day center five days a week, as long as we don't enter level 3 and they close it, of course, but he only goes from 09:00 to 17:00, so I have to take care of him the rest of the day," she says.
As for her mother, whom she also says she cared for for 11 years, she has already passed away. In addition, she points out that after her death and the subsequent confinement due to Covid, her father's health worsened "dramatically," needing "more help." A situation that has become "an ordeal" for Isabel. "Due to my work as a cleaner and the constant care for others, I am not feeling well physically," she says. "I am alone to take care of him and with a recently operated shoulder," she adds.
"They don't contact me in any way"
Therefore, this 55-year-old woman says that in November of last year she requested the review of her father's degree of dependency, since she considers that "he needs a place in a residence where all his basic needs are met" and "to request it, the first step is to have grade II." However, she complains of not having received a response from the Government of the Canary Islands so far. "They haven't answered anything yet," she says.
"According to social workers, my request arrived two months later," says this woman, who in any case insists that they have not responded to her request. In addition, she points out that in June she filed a claim "to speed up" her file and that it was "more of the same."
"They don't contact me in any way," says Isabel, who criticizes the "impressive bottleneck" and the "delay" with the Dependency Law. "Hence my petition," says this woman, who has decided to contact La Voz to publicize her situation and for people to support the initiative she has launched through the change.org platform. "That they sign me or, if someone is in my situation and wants us to do a mobilization... because me alone, what demonstration do I do? I imagine there are, but we have to unite and protest together if we want this to be solved," she says.
In her petition, this resident of Arrecife addresses the president of the Government of the Canary Islands. "He has been in office for two years and we are getting worse and worse. We are the last in the dependency system in all of Spain," she says, also demanding "more direct aid" for the elderly of Lanzarote, "while waiting for the place in the residence that they and their caregivers need so much.
