It was born as a pilot experience in 2022 but the ‘premature elderly’ project launched by the City of Madrid together with the Foundation Down’s Syndrome, is here to stay. With this initiative, it provides early attention to the early aging of people with intellectual disabilities over 40 years of age.
According to the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, from the La Vaguada Senior Center, where this inclusive program is developed, the project aims to “provide new skills to people with Down syndrome who reach a certain age.” Furthermore, he has advanced that They are studying “how to expand” the initiative, “which has been tested successfully”, to other municipal centers in the city of Madrid. This activity is in line with other municipal government programs to “alleviate unwanted loneliness” in the capital.
Through activities such as tai chi, theater or drawing, the program seeks to enhance the comprehensive cognitive, physical, social, emotional and linguistic development of people with intellectual disabilities over 40 years of age who have already retired from working life. In these activities, the participants, users of the occupational center of the Down Syndrome Foundation of Madrid, live and socialize with the users of the La Vaguada Municipal Center for the Elderly. They do it two days a week with inclusive theater and watercolor workshops.
“What this pilot program has shown,” said the delegate of Social Policies, Families and Equality, José Fernández, is that “there can be a complementarity between older people and people with intellectual disabilities“, which is why they share the different workshops. Such is the success that on the 23rd of this month a contest will be held with the inclusive plays they do in these workshops. Ildefonsa and José Antonio, the instructors, tell how rewarding it is is for them: “they give more than we give them, they fill you up a lot.” The intention, as they explain, was to ensure “that people with Down syndrome were considered older and could enter these centers starting from 45 years.” With this program, they say, “it was achieved and now they are one more.”
In recent years, the longevity of people with Down syndrome has increased by 30 years, reaching a life expectancy that is close to 60. Therefore, early care is provided to help combat the loss of abilities maintain greater autonomy, promoting their social, cognitive and emotional skills. With this municipal program, in addition Premature aging is addressed by preventing and detecting symptoms of functional decline.
