Espai Mataró Cuida - CareCityLab inaugurated with an institutional event and open doors

The city of Mataró’s new care and research centre in the social and health sphere was inaugurated on 28 November in a one-day event to publicise the services it offers, including the Care Office and the Sirius Centre for Personal Autonomy. During the morning, the institutional event took place with a talk by Genís Roca, an expert in digital transformation processes. In the afternoon, it was possible to visit the CareCityLab facility with open doors.

Espai Mataró Cuida – CareCityLab is a leading centre in research, advice and attention to care that puts Mataró in the spotlight of caring cities in Catalonia. The facility, located at Passeig de la Marina 144, was created with funds from the Government of Catalonia and is already in operation. One of the novel features of Espai Mataró Cuida is that it is run jointly by all the founding partner entities: Mataró City Council, TecnoCampus Mataró-Maresme, Maresme Health Consortium, Maresme Health Consortium Private Foundation, Sant Jaume i Santa Magdalena Private Foundation Hospital, Maresme Private Foundation, Eurecat Foundation, TIC Salut Social Foundation, Jordi Gol i Gurina Foundation, and the Catalan Health Institute.

Care Office, Sirius Centre for Personal Autonomy Sírius and the Link Point

The Care Office is aimed at people who are frail because of their age, because they have some type of disability, dependency or chronic illness, as well as their carers. The aims are to promote autonomy as long as possible, to inform about the access of fragile people and their carers to the network of public and private resources in the field of social and health care. It also incorporates the community perspective in the field of care, generating community spaces where the social responsibility of care can be shared.

The Care Office offers information, guidance and advice, group interventions and creates links with Third Sector entities.

The aims of the Sírius Centre for Personal Autonomy are to inform and advise on solutions to improve the autonomy of dependent people. To inform and advise on solutions that facilitate the work of the social worker in the case of dependent people of any age, on resources and aids as well as featuring a large permanent exhibition space of support products and accessible environments. There is also the intention to strengthen the knowledge and specialisation of social and health care professionals through training sessions and workshops.

This service is aimed both at dependants and their carers/family members, as well as at organisations, professionals and students and companies that offer products and services to encourage the person’s autonomy as much as possible.

As concrete examples of what the Centre for Personal Autonomy currently offers are two inclusive family bathrooms with changing rooms for adults, a bathroom for people with ostomy, as well as other simulated spaces. A house and a residence room that provide solutions and technical aids to improve people’s autonomy.

The Link Point, led by the Hospital Foundation, facilitates citizens’ access to information, guidance and advice from Third Sector Social Action Organisations for care. The aim is to empower and generate interaction between caregivers and/or care receivers in Mataró and the Maresme region. In addition, it promotes interaction between organisations and facilitates the development of joint lines of work among organisations of the Third Sector of Social Care Action, in order to enhance the social value they provide and grow the social care ecosystem.

Care to address frailty and dysphagia workshops

The Maresme Health Consortium offers Frailty Screening Programme workshops that consist of 7 sessions focused on physical exercise to improve cardiorespiratory function, strength and balance, nutrition, emotional well-being, monitoring of underlying diseases, the appropriate use of medication and finally social support.

Digestive motility is developing a series of activities for 2025 aimed at the public on faecal incontinence and constipation with the aim of empowering patients and family members affected by faecal incontinence and constipation, as well as raising awareness among the general public. There will be 8 independent activities including colloquiums and workshops that will take place during the year.

Workshops on fluids and modified texture diets have also been held for people with dysphagia, carers, nursing and retirement homes to prepare adapted menus. Workshops are planned to be held at Mataró Hospital during 2025.

Arrangements are also underway to hold a series of talks aimed at the entire population of Mataró related to global health: prevention of infections, bacteria resistant to antibiotics and strengthening immunity with vaccines.

Transfer of knowledge to the business sector

Espai Mataró Cuida-CareCityLab has started the deployment of collaborative programmes where the synergy between the research centers and agents of the business sector allows to accelerate the development and implementation of innovative solutions for the benefit of society. An example is the Innocare programme (TecnoCampus) to transfer knowledge to the productive sector.

All the founding partners work on different projects and lines of study and scientific research that will be developed in this facility, as a node of knowledge and services for the care of citizens.