BASIC PRIMARY SOCIAL SERVICES

SERVEIS BÀSICS D'ATENCIÓ SOCIAL PRIMÀRIA

Primary social care is the most immediately available form of access to the Catalan social services system, and that with which people have most dealings in relation to family and social matters.

Basic primary social services are provided by interdisciplinary teams called basic primary social care teams (Equips Bàsics d'Atenció Social i Primària, EBASP), which are made up of at least a social worker / social work graduate and a social educator.

Primary social services are run by local bodies. The councils of towns and cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants have to manage such services directly. The councils of areas with less than 20,000 inhabitants can choose to manage them directly or to leave that task to the regional council (Consell Comarcal).

A catalogue of social services is available at
http://www14.gencat.cat/sacgencat/AppJava/serveis.jsp

Primary social services deal with all citizens' social demands and requirements (related to finances, care for children or dependent people, addictions, gender-based violence, etc.), on the basis of which professionals identify situations and produce action plans encompassing all the available resources.

The work of primary social services includes:

  • Attending to homeless and destitute people (persones sense sostre i indigents). Some towns and cities have temporary shelters (albergs d'acollida) for the homeless, where they are usually provided with food and accommodation for a few days. The primary social services also offer social promotion and reintegration programmes for such people.

  • Contributing to prevention by detecting situations involving social risk (problems with or deficiencies in care for children, senior citizens or the disabled, for example).

  • Offering to participate and cooperate in community social integration and reintegration processes. For example, they participate in programmes for preventing and reducing school absenteeism (absentisme escolar) and in vocational integration and guidance programmes (programes d'orientació i inserció laboral).

  • Referring people to specialised social services and operating in coordination with other institutions and organisations, such as schools, open centres (centres oberts) for children and teenagers, and healthcare centres (centres de salut).

  • Managing the home help service (Servei d'Atenció Domiciliària, SAD), which supports people who lack autonomy (disability, illness or convalescence, social and family problems, etc.) and their family in their own homes. Such support takes the form of carrying out tasks related to personal care and to tidying and organising homes.

  • Supporting cultural, social and civic activities that encourage the local development of the network of associations.