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A day center for seniors is designed to provide care and preventative, social, health, and rehabilitation assistance to elderly people who, due to illness or socio-familiar limitations, require help to maintain their autonomy and dependency. The staff provides assistance in the activities of daily life, thereby delaying placement in a residential home. The users of the center generally come every morning, Monday through Friday, remain at the center all day and return at night to their own homes or that of their families.
In Spain, there were three types of social services for seniors (aged 65 and over)
Public services at home: 100% funded by the state. Currently, 800,000 people (9.5% of the population) used them.
Public and private day services: Clubs, homes, and day centers: 3.6 million people used them (47% of the population).
Public and private residential care (overnight stay): Residential centers and supervised housing. There were 340,000 people (4.4% of the population) in such centers throughout Spain.
The number of day centers had been traditionally modest compared with other services (2,258 day centers for seniors throughout Spain). However, this number tripled recently. There were three types of day care centers, depending on the method of funding the service for users:
100% funded by the state: 41% of the places (this has increased in recent years). The average price was €656 per month.
100% privately funded: the service user pays 100% of the cost. Currently, this represented 37% of the places (dropping from 45% in 2002).
Hybrid: Cost shared between the user and the state. On average, the user paid 20%–30% of the final price. This accounted for 22% of the available places, varied considerably by Autonomous Region
The average price of private centers (both 100% private and hybrid), ranged from €666 per month in Castilla la Mancha to €990 in the Cantabria Autonomous Region ( Exhibit 1). [1]
The day center concept introduced in Spain had not seen extensive uptake so far, with residency much more widespread. But the dependency level of many of those choosing the latter would have allowed them to go to a day center instead, where they could receive the appropriate treatment and continue living in familiar surroundings. Further, Spain was one of the EU countries strongest hit by the global crisis, with a significant reduction in GDP (Exhibit 3). Similarly, projections showed a slow recovery. This has meant that families paying 1.500-2000 €/month for nursing homes turned to other less expensive solutions, such as day centers.
[1] An Autonomous Region is a territorial entity that, within the constitutional system of Spain is equipped with autonomous legislative and executive powers and the ability to be administered by their own representatives. Spain is divided into 17 Autonomous Regions.
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