The PSOE of Lanzarote denounces that the government presided over by Oswaldo Betancort and with Marciano Acuña at the head of the Social Welfare area was aware of a particularly serious situation at the Amavir Tías residence, where elderly people coexisted with residents who presented problems unrelated to the typical profile of a geriatric center, among them addictions and mental health disorders, without there being any record of the attention, supervision, or periodic evaluation by the corresponding health and care services that these cases require.
The spokesperson for the Socialist Group in the Cabildo, Ariagona González, has warned that this reality was known by the island administration and, even so, the necessary measures were not adopted to adequately protect the elderly residents nor to ensure that the center responded to the care profile for which it is conceived.
“We are talking about elderly people in a situation of dependency who deserve to live in a safe, stable environment adapted to their needs. It is not admissible that the Cabildo knew that in that same space there were residents with complex problems, such as addictions or mental disorders, without adequate attention, and looked the other way,” González pointed out.
According to the PSOE's complaint, in the center profiles coexisted that required specific intervention and professional attention alien to the scope of an ordinary geriatric residence. Far from being isolated or unknown situations, this reality had been detected and generated concern in the very functioning of the resource.
In that context, the possibility would even have been raised of removing from the center those people who repeatedly violated the internal rules, given the impossibility of fitting certain behaviors within the daily coexistence of the resource. Among those cases would be at least one resident with addiction problems, a circumstance that, in the opinion of the PSOE, evidences to what extent the situation was known and did not correspond to the appropriate profile for a senior residence.
“The most serious thing is that we are not facing an unforeseen problem nor an unknown circumstance. Oswaldo Betancort and Marciano Acuña cannot plead ignorance, because the Cabildo knew that there were profiles incompatible with the nature of this resource and also knew that they were not being attended to by the corresponding services. And, despite this, it did not act with the diligence that such a situation demanded,” added Ariagona González.
Therefore, Ariagona González has demanded from the Cabildo, and in particular from the island president and the councilor responsible for the area, that they explain since when they were aware of this situation, what decisions they adopted or failed to adopt and why it was allowed to maintain in Amavir Tías a reality that did not correspond to the geriatric nature of the resource.
“The elderly of Lanzarote and their families do not deserve excuses or silences. They deserve responsible management, real vigilance over what happens in the centers, and firm decisions when situations incompatible with dignified care are detected,” he/she concluded.
