Paula Montes: For the Greater Good and the search for strengthening for residences
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 6:50 am
Paula Montes Vergara is the Director of Social at Simón de Cirene , an area dedicated to improving the management of social and community organizations. For the past 4 years, she has put her knowledge at the service of others, leading this area with excellence.
Paula discovered her passion for engineering and knew it was her path. After completing her education at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, she earned her degree in Industrial Civil Engineering. But her need for knowledge and desire to broaden her horizons led her on a journey to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). There, she perfected her skills in Public Policy, earning a valuable postgraduate degree that would allow her to address social challenges from a broader perspective.
Her personal and professional journey has taught her determination, passion and freedom for what we do, which are, according to her, the key to leaving a lasting mark on the world: “Rather than seeking happiness, I seek freedom today, because I believe that freedom is more primary. Happiness is moments, but if one feels free and at peace, one is open to the paths that life takes you to.”
How has the process and experience of working with the elderly at Simon of Cyrene been?
Since 2016, at Simón de Cirene we have had a project with SENAMA (National Service for the Elderly) that sought to strengthen the residences that care for the elderly. As we are experts in training and management, they hired us to do training in these residences. And then the pandemic arrived.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, SENAMA asked us to manage a fund donated by the CPC – Confederation of Production and Commerce . The objective at that time was to avoid deaths. The director of SENAMA was Octavio Vergara and he had the vision to say “I have to avoid what we see in Europe happening in Chile”, which was finding a residence with its deceased elderly people. So he established a Covid strategy, which consisted of having direct and permanent communication with all the residences, so as to be able to know instantly if an outbreak occurred.
When this happened, we had to activate a mirror residence, which was the reflection of this infected residence. In general, it was a hotel, a hostel, places that we rented and fitted out as residences. This meant having beds, health personnel, food services, security, personal protection elements such as masks, vests and alcohol gel. We had to be able to create this new residence in 24 hours, so that we could separate the sick from the healthy, so that there would be no further contagion.
It was a great challenge. We were working very hard from March until the end of 2020. taiwan number example At the end of that year, the vaccines arrived and that made us see the light at the end of the tunnel. That was our immersion in this world, not only from management and teaching, but also from understanding that, in addition to these formal residences, there was a gigantic world of residences that were operating somewhat clandestinely, hidden, but not for that reason bad places, they simply do not have health authorization.
We were very sensitive to this situation, because these are residences that want to do good, that provide a service that is essential for society, but they don't know very well how to do it, and they are operating outside the law. So we wanted to take on that challenge and today we have the project called For the Greater Good, which seeks to strengthen the country's residences, whether formal or informal, because the truth is that there is a lot of precariousness, there is a huge lack of resources.
Everything arises for a greater good
Caring for an elderly person in Chile costs around 1 million pesos per month, because they need adequate food, specialized medical equipment for their care, as well as special equipment and infrastructure.
Most nursing homes only have the pension for the elderly, which is generally very low. So, as resources are scarce, the food is not so good, the diapers are not changed as often as they should be, there is one caregiver for many people, this lowers the standard and means that they are outside the legal regulations.
For the Greater Good is our great proposal to work with the elderly who live in residences. The elderly need the attention of the State and of civil society wherever they are: in their homes, in senior citizen clubs, everywhere! But it is in residences in particular where they are most invisible, because they are inside a house and cannot be seen, and the deficiencies they suffer day to day are not known.
What are the reasons why an elderly person arrives at a residence?
There are a number of reasons. One could think, for example, of a well-off family that decides that their father or mother will spend their last days in a very high-standard residence where they will be able to share with other people, have fun, have activities, and that is a very good motivation. But we are talking about an exception.
In general, what we have seen in our work is that these are people who require specialized care and their families cannot provide it to them, so they will be placed in a residence.
Sometimes it happens that these are people who have no networks and no one looks after them because they have no children, or because their children are far away. And we also have social cases, in which the same courts send them to nursing homes, or they are homeless and must be sent to nursing homes in order to receive the care that is appropriate for them.
What have been the intentions that you have seen in the breadwinners for wanting to work on this? Knowing that it is sometimes very complicated, what driving force have you seen that motivates them to continue forward?
It is quite surprising, but in general the caregivers are ordinary people who at some point were left in the care of a relative, a neighbor asked them to take care of another relative, and so, without realizing it, they became a residence, possibly informal.
We see that they have a love for caring for the elderly that is very genuine , they speak affectionately of “my old people” because they feel they are their own responsibility. They want to care for them, but they need help. Most of them would tell you that they are very grateful when we have worked with them, the support we have been able to give them and the networks we have built around them.
Paula discovered her passion for engineering and knew it was her path. After completing her education at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, she earned her degree in Industrial Civil Engineering. But her need for knowledge and desire to broaden her horizons led her on a journey to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). There, she perfected her skills in Public Policy, earning a valuable postgraduate degree that would allow her to address social challenges from a broader perspective.
Her personal and professional journey has taught her determination, passion and freedom for what we do, which are, according to her, the key to leaving a lasting mark on the world: “Rather than seeking happiness, I seek freedom today, because I believe that freedom is more primary. Happiness is moments, but if one feels free and at peace, one is open to the paths that life takes you to.”
How has the process and experience of working with the elderly at Simon of Cyrene been?
Since 2016, at Simón de Cirene we have had a project with SENAMA (National Service for the Elderly) that sought to strengthen the residences that care for the elderly. As we are experts in training and management, they hired us to do training in these residences. And then the pandemic arrived.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, SENAMA asked us to manage a fund donated by the CPC – Confederation of Production and Commerce . The objective at that time was to avoid deaths. The director of SENAMA was Octavio Vergara and he had the vision to say “I have to avoid what we see in Europe happening in Chile”, which was finding a residence with its deceased elderly people. So he established a Covid strategy, which consisted of having direct and permanent communication with all the residences, so as to be able to know instantly if an outbreak occurred.
When this happened, we had to activate a mirror residence, which was the reflection of this infected residence. In general, it was a hotel, a hostel, places that we rented and fitted out as residences. This meant having beds, health personnel, food services, security, personal protection elements such as masks, vests and alcohol gel. We had to be able to create this new residence in 24 hours, so that we could separate the sick from the healthy, so that there would be no further contagion.
It was a great challenge. We were working very hard from March until the end of 2020. taiwan number example At the end of that year, the vaccines arrived and that made us see the light at the end of the tunnel. That was our immersion in this world, not only from management and teaching, but also from understanding that, in addition to these formal residences, there was a gigantic world of residences that were operating somewhat clandestinely, hidden, but not for that reason bad places, they simply do not have health authorization.
We were very sensitive to this situation, because these are residences that want to do good, that provide a service that is essential for society, but they don't know very well how to do it, and they are operating outside the law. So we wanted to take on that challenge and today we have the project called For the Greater Good, which seeks to strengthen the country's residences, whether formal or informal, because the truth is that there is a lot of precariousness, there is a huge lack of resources.
Everything arises for a greater good
Caring for an elderly person in Chile costs around 1 million pesos per month, because they need adequate food, specialized medical equipment for their care, as well as special equipment and infrastructure.
Most nursing homes only have the pension for the elderly, which is generally very low. So, as resources are scarce, the food is not so good, the diapers are not changed as often as they should be, there is one caregiver for many people, this lowers the standard and means that they are outside the legal regulations.
For the Greater Good is our great proposal to work with the elderly who live in residences. The elderly need the attention of the State and of civil society wherever they are: in their homes, in senior citizen clubs, everywhere! But it is in residences in particular where they are most invisible, because they are inside a house and cannot be seen, and the deficiencies they suffer day to day are not known.
What are the reasons why an elderly person arrives at a residence?
There are a number of reasons. One could think, for example, of a well-off family that decides that their father or mother will spend their last days in a very high-standard residence where they will be able to share with other people, have fun, have activities, and that is a very good motivation. But we are talking about an exception.
In general, what we have seen in our work is that these are people who require specialized care and their families cannot provide it to them, so they will be placed in a residence.
Sometimes it happens that these are people who have no networks and no one looks after them because they have no children, or because their children are far away. And we also have social cases, in which the same courts send them to nursing homes, or they are homeless and must be sent to nursing homes in order to receive the care that is appropriate for them.
What have been the intentions that you have seen in the breadwinners for wanting to work on this? Knowing that it is sometimes very complicated, what driving force have you seen that motivates them to continue forward?
It is quite surprising, but in general the caregivers are ordinary people who at some point were left in the care of a relative, a neighbor asked them to take care of another relative, and so, without realizing it, they became a residence, possibly informal.
We see that they have a love for caring for the elderly that is very genuine , they speak affectionately of “my old people” because they feel they are their own responsibility. They want to care for them, but they need help. Most of them would tell you that they are very grateful when we have worked with them, the support we have been able to give them and the networks we have built around them.