On Thursday, October 31, two days after the DANA that left more than 200 victims, the General Council of Social Work activated its group for major catastrophes and mobilized 350 workers with experience in emergencies to travel to Valencia. That same Friday, the movements of elite groups began, the so-called ‘GEIES’ (State Group for Intervention in Social Emergencies) with workers from neighboring communities destined to provide support.
The social workers act with a quasi-military planning: a segmentation of the municipalities to create a map of needs and go street by street, door to door, trying to locate the most vulnerable neighbors and address their needs. These are dependent people, the elderly, people with mental health problems or those who require home care, but social workers have ended up providing help to those who request it. The municipal administration has been key due to its knowledge of the terrain, highlights Emiliana Vicente, president of the Council, in addition to having the neighborhood collaboration. In the first days, contact between personal networks was key to finding the population at risk.
This is precisely one of the objectives of social work, Vicente highlights: “There are always situations of vulnerability and with catastrophes more are generated. We have to work so that it does not become exclusion,” explains the president of the Council, who traveled to Valencia with her colleagues to coordinate their forces. They mobilized human and technical equipment, accident insurance and accommodation coverage for employees, all at the disposal of the municipal social services centers. The group has operated mainly in Horta Sud, but the network of workers is available to all municipalities.
In addition to door-to-door, the workers coordinated from the beginning with the staff of the city councils, which barely have the means to reinforce this area. From the Generalitat Valenciana, they say, they have not heard anything. The workers of the elite group maintain contact with the municipal social services centers, try to carry out telephone control of those who have infrastructure and in the first days, a kind of social triage to determine the priorities of the intervention. Vicente’s team has encountered an unprecedented panorama for a Western country, he points out. The state official wonders how it is possible that after days there were still people without electricity or water. “It is difficult to understand how those people were living due to a lack of preventive action,” comments the expert in conversation with elDiario.es, while highlighting that “the mayors have taken their breath away.” The neighbors, he points out, “did not have water or collection points.”
The person in charge values the waves of solidarity, but demands coordinated action: “Waves of solidarity are good, but they are not the way. If there is a single command, all professionals must be made available for emergencies,” says the professional, who claims that there are workers with specific training to deal with these emergencies. They are, for example, the ones who take into account the socio-sanitary conditions of the neighbors, whether they need medication or specific help and how to provide it. “We have given our workers better training,” he defends. The person in charge of the school is concerned about the messages that smack of anti-politics and vindicates the role of the municipalities: “We have seen the mayors giving up, the municipal devices, their workers… that is the State,” she emphasizes.
Long term pain
He is also concerned that vulnerability is spreading, becoming chronic, and that the discomfort that is yet to emerge is not being taken into account. Vicente points to the mourning that has not yet begun to materialize, to the impossibility of some people to bury their relatives, to the suffering for the missing. And in the image of the devastation of the towns, which is a constant for those who have kept their home. The place they know has disappeared, and above it there is a large mountain of mud and rubble. “We must accompany the reconstruction of people’s vital processes, in addition to material damage,” he emphasizes.
The representative maintains that municipalities must strengthen their teams to face what is to come. “There is an issue of social and emotional damage that is brutal. They need support groups, to reconstruct the story of what they experienced. We must address social reconstruction as a whole,” he points out. “All crises, climate, economic, health, have a surname and are social. We are before, during and after the emergency,” he emphasizes. Vicente defends the development of protocols that are “perfectly defined”: “We have to know what the priority actions are and where the immediate focus must be placed so that the damage is as little as possible,” he points out. For example, quote: “We know that we have single people who need home help and they have to be included in the emergency plans. And you either take those people out of the home or with the EMU or the emergency personnel you give them that service.”
He urges the Administration to act quickly, also for the future well-being of people: “If you feel that there is agility you can feel safe, but if you think that it could have been avoided, the damage is irreparable. Bureaucracy cannot generate greater pain.”
50 million euros to strengthen municipal social services
The emergency group was created in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic to address existing vulnerabilities and poverty resulting from catastrophes, as also happened with the eruption of the La Palma volcano, in the Canary Islands.
After learning about the situation in the Valencian municipalities, and to try to reinforce municipal social work networks, the Government approved a decree on November 11 that includes aid of 50 million euros to the affected municipalities to reinforce their social services. through the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030. Minister Pablo Bustinduy, to whom this portfolio depends, calls to maintain attention beyond the material damage caused by the floods: “We must not forget the consequences that can be unleashed at a social level for many families and vulnerable people. So that no person affected by DANA is also a victim of social exclusion, we have promoted important aid for social services, third sector entities and also for the deployment of social workers specialized in disasters and who are essential to protect those who need it most,” points to elDiario.es.
This is the second decree that the central government approves with urgent measures for DANA. The first, approved on November 4, was validated last Thursday by Congress. The text plans to reinforce emergency social intervention through the deployment of basic benefits of primary care social services, through a direct subsidy to the affected municipalities.
The amount is channeled through a subsidy, executable from October 29, 2024, DANA day, until December 31, 2025, for the administrations competent in the provision of primary care social services. This measure, the text says, will make it possible to implement actions regarding early detection and emergency intervention; information, guidance, advice and management support; emergency support including benefits and direct financial aid to cohabitation units, families and affected individuals; the reinforcement of actions in the home environment until the normalization of mobility in the affected areas.
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