Etxean Ondo Residences

Etxean Ondo Residences and Day Centres is an initiative developed by Matia Fundazioa and Matia Instituto Gerontológico with funding from the Basque Government's Department of Employment and Social Policies, which aims to transform the traditional care model developed in residences.

Specifically, it involves the creation of coexistence units that facilitate care styles that favour autonomy and well-being; based on the needs, capacities and preferences of each of the residents or day centre users.

Its design and implementation involves a multi-dimensional intervention proposal that affects the physical environment, social context, activities and organisational guidelines of each of the places where it is developed.

The start of Etxean Ondo Residences was the creation, in 2011, of the Coexistence Unit on the seventh floor of the Lamourous - Zubiaurre Gerontology Centre, and the implementation of the Person-Centred Care Model in the Day Centre of the Rezola Gerontology Centre. Throughout 2012, new units were opened in these centres; as well as in the Fraisoro Gerontology Centre, where a Coexistence Unit and a Day Centre were also inaugurated. In total, six cohabitation units and two day centres have been created.

A total of 160 residents are participating in the development of Etxean Ondo Residences; as well as almost 60 assistants and the technical teams of the centres involved in the experience.

This project is a study in which the participants are compared in successive evaluations with a control group with similar characteristics. The results that have been recorded corroborate the opinions of many of the professionals, residents or family members.

The new form of care is good and helps to improve the traditional care provided in residential centres. The improvements affect not only residents, but also workers and families.

More personalized care with stable reference persons and in places that look like homes are some of the key elements, which help to explain the benefits of the model of care that is being implemented.

In addition to verifying the effects that this model has on residents, workers and families, one of the main objectives of the Etxean Ondo project is to identify the most relevant keys and the most effective procedure for generalising this care model to other residential centres.

This objective is especially relevant, given the progressive interest that has been aroused towards the implementation of care proposals based on the rights and preferences of the elderly.

The results and the procedure used at Etxean Ondo Residential Care Centres aim, in short, to provide knowledge and tools to offer people living in residential care centres opportunities so that each of them can, in addition to receiving the care they need, develop a life in line with their abilities, preferences and desires.

In the next posts we will tell you first-hand about the experience of implementing the project in the different centres we have mentioned. Meanwhile, here is a video where we can see a summary of the benefits of this model.