The Cabildo of Lanzarote, in collaboration with the Government of the Canary Islands, will manage the expansion of personnel in the Assessment and Guidance Team (EVO) of the island, with the aim of improving response times in disability assessments. This agreement has an annual funding of 181,305.51 euros from the Autonomous Government and will allow the incorporation of two social workers and a psychologist in the remainder of 2024 and during 2025.
The president of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort, highlighted the relevance of this agreement to address a long-demanded need. "Since my time as a deputy in the Parliament of the Canary Islands, I denounced the lack of resources in the assessment teams of Lanzarote and the waiting list that this generated. This agreement is a crucial step to expedite the procedures and guarantee a faster and more efficient attention to the affected families," Betancort pointed out.
In addition to the reports for the assessment of the degree of disability, the agreement includes the drafting of technical documents related to official protection housing, admission to socio-health residential centers, access to adapted jobs, and municipal aid plans, among others. These actions will be developed in coordination with the multi-professional teams of the Disability Assessment Center of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The Minister of Social Welfare, Marci Acuña, stressed that "the expansion of the team not only responds to the need to reduce waiting times, but also strengthens the comprehensive care for people with disabilities. This agreement will allow us to attend to the families of Lanzarote more quickly and efficiently, ensuring that the assessment processes are not a barrier to accessing the resources they need," Acuña pointed out.
"With this initiative, the Cabildo of Lanzarote reaffirms its commitment to real inclusion and to social welfare policies aimed at people with disabilities, their families and caregivers, which guarantee a dignified and accessible attention to all citizens of the island," concluded the councilor.
For her part, Dulce Gutiérrez, general director of Disability of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Childhood and Family of the Government of the Canary Islands, assures "that the autonomous government is very involved with the attention of the demands made by people with disabilities, and one of them is the need to reduce the lists. And for this, we have launched agreements with the councils and we have hired 14 more doctors, among other measures aimed at improving the rights of all these people."
