Lanzarote has 1.3 places in residences for every 100 people over 65 years of age, according to data accessed by La Voz. This reality clashes with the one existing in Spain as a whole, where, according to the latest report by the Aging in Network Laboratory of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), there would be an average of 4.1 residential places for every 100 elderly people. Thus, it is concluded that Lanzarote has three times fewer places in residences than the national territory in relation to the population over 65 years of age.
Specifically, according to data provided by the Cabildo, the island has 201 public or subsidized residential places distributed in five centers, which are the Domingo de Guzmán Residence (22 places), the residence attached to the Insular Hospital (47 places), the Ammavir Tías Senior Residence (64 places), the Ammavir Haría Senior Residence (40 places) and the San Roque de Tinajo Senior Residence (28 places).
Two of these centers, which are the Ammavir residences in Haría and Tías, are privately managed. In the case of the former, all its places are subsidized, but in the case of the latter, it also has 26 private places. Thus, the number of residential places in Lanzarote is 227 for a population over 65 years of age which, as of January 1, 2017, which is the latest data available from the Cabildo Data Center, was 16,467 people. As for the waiting list to enter public residences in Lanzarote, it is 157 people, as confirmed by the Department of Social Welfare of the first institution.
Melilla, 8,000 elderly people and four places per 100
Regarding Spain as a whole, the latest report from the Aging in Network Laboratory of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) on statistics on residences is from June 2015, but even then there were a total of 359,035 residential places throughout the national territory for a population over 65 years of age of 8,522,729, that is, just over four places for every 100 elderly people.
This report also shows that provinces with a smaller number of elderly people than Lanzarote have many more residential places, as is the case of Melilla, which with a population of 8,288 people over 65 years of age, had 318 residential places in 2015, almost four for every 100 elderly people. There are also others such as Soria, which with just 5,000 more elderly people than Lanzarote had 2,596 residential places, with a ratio of 10.8.
Other resources for the elderly
Among the resources for the elderly existing in Lanzarote, there are also six day centers, with a total of 165 places distributed in the Amma Tías Day Care Center for the Elderly (34 places), the Amma Haría Day Care Center for the Elderly (21 places), the San Roque Day Care Center for the Elderly (15 places), the Las Cabreras Day Care Center (45 places), the La Graciosa Day Care Center (five places) and the Isla de los Volcanes Day Center, which is privately managed and has 45 places.
For the day centers, according to what La Voz has been told by the Department of Social Welfare of the Cabildo, the waiting list is 166 people.
