The Catalan Government approved on Tuesday the bill for the Integrated Agency for Social and Health Assistance (AGAISS). The objective of the initiative is to coordinate services and actors involved in integrated social and health care and to prioritize the care and attention of people at home and in community settings to enable them to develop, as long as possible, their life project. at home.
Another of the objectives of AGAISS, promoted by the previous executive and now resumed after being interrupted by the early calling of elections, is that people who are in residential centers receive health care from the public system.
Promoted by the Departments of Social Rights and Health with the collaboration of local entities, the Government spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque, detailed during the press conference following the meeting of the Executive Council that the creation of the agency has a budget of around four million euros and three million per year. related to program development.
Once approved by the Catalan executive, the bill is now submitted to Parliament. Paneque hoped that the processing could be carried out “quickly and with agility” in the first quarter of 2025 to deploy AGAISS as early as 2025. “We are counting on its rapid approval,” said the government spokesperson, stressing that it should be no problem of approval in Parliament because, during the previous legislature, it already enjoyed “broad support” among the parties.
“There should be no major disagreement or divergence,” said Paneque, who clarified that the deployment would be done in a “global” manner without prioritizing territories.
Regarding the objectives of the initiative, Paneque emphasized that “the person will be put at the center” and that they will benefit from “unified” and “single attention”. Thus, he indicated, beneficiaries “will not have to explain their situation to multiple people”, but will benefit from personalized attention.
“More adapted and agile” care
The government agreement indicates that the AGAISS is an “instrument which must enable the promotion of integrated social and health care” by facilitating “maximum coordination and collaboration between social and health services”. It aims to be a “pioneering body” that coordinates the departments and actors involved in integrated social and health care and manages its resources, facilitating a “more adequate and more agile” offer, declared the Catalan executive.
The people who will benefit from the creation of the agency, emphasizes the government, are those who have “concomitant social and health needs”, including the elderly, people with disabilities, mental health or substance abuse problems and, in general , all those who have complex care needs or palliative care needs, as well as their caring environment.
More specifically, the AGAISS will have five objectives: to enable maximum coordination and collaboration between professionals and organizations in social services and health services; empower people and improve health and personal well-being outcomes; improve the efficiency and sustainability of the health and social services system, the care of individuals and their families as well as the experience of professionals in providing care.
