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At the end of long cycle of discussions that Upipa has organized in the Trentino territories, the strongest of the considerations that emerges is related to one considerable amount of beds which, without new constructions and – in some cases – with minimal renovation interventions, they could be made available to deal with the strong pressure on the waiting lists to enter the RSA.
By putting together these availability, in fact, is highlighted that are present the equivalent of 3 medium-sized retirement homes.
These are beds that they could be authorized as places approved by the Province or, at least, as private individuals (with tuition paid entirely by the user).
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In detail, 73 places are lying idle because they are unauthorized; others 73 could be obtained by making the same number of single rooms double (it is not a question of eliminating the supply of single rooms, but of re-determining the use of those which, among them, have sufficient square footage); 63 are classified as holiday homes: service on which the pressure of the waiting lists is infinitely less than that of the RSAs.
In the Trentino RSAs managed by APSP – that is, public personal service companies – 4,618 places are currently authorized, of which 4,030 affiliated and 588 private. The APSPs manage 84.8% of the total authorized beds, to which must therefore be added those managed by the Spes group and other private individuals.
The maximum number of beds authorized in Trentino is defined by a Resolution of the Provincial Council (n. 2112) of 2009: this establishes that for RSAs the number of authorized beds corresponds to 10% of the population over 75 as of 31 December 2008. Counting Apsp, Spes and private individuals we therefore arrive at the estimate of 4,966.
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As noted, thoughthe population has aged quite a bittherefore if we take the latest available Istat data and apply – here too – the 10% parameter, it is easy to calculate that the authorized places should be 6,416.
Assuming that the APSPs still have to manage 84.8% of them, they should have 5,440 authorized beds: 29.2% more than now.
So: the need in the area has grown more than the response of the Province.
Another theme concerns the fact that the distribution of beds in RSAs is not homogeneous: comparing the number of places present in each Valley Community to that of over 75s present in the same Community, coverage rates are obtained which vary from 13.7% to 4.5% of authorized places, and from 10.7% to 3.6% of affiliated places. Strong imbalances are also recorded in the distribution between private places and affiliated places.
As for the staff requests, highlighted in recent days by various trade unions, the president of Upipa Michela Chiogna explains: «We are close to the professionals who work in our facilities. We often interact with them and are always available, obviously, to also discuss with their representatives. In practically every meeting in the last period, we have talked about the need to introduce and finance the mobile parameter (i.e. being able to increase the presence of nurses and health workers compared to the number of beds) especially to accommodate those who support working conditions – connected to the severity of the users’ health situation – more burdensome.
We know that a lot needs to be done on training and also, another theme that has emerged with great force from the territories, on specialization: with adequate structures and resources starting from the presence of the right number of places and professionals in the dementia units. Again with respect to staff, it is clear that we must also intervene decisively on professional development, which necessarily passes through career progression and contractual recognition.
Finally, just this week we kicked off the celebrations for Upipa’s 25th anniversary. Celebrations which, in our case, turn into opportunities for discussion, exchange of good practices, moments of training. We are also preparing the trip to Denmark: a country where very innovative solutions for the management of aging are being put into practice.”
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