BE advocates for universal access to social workers for people with disabilities

The coordinator of Bloco de Esquerda this Saturday defended universal access to personal assistants, a support that she considers crucial for people with disabilities to lead independent lives.

“Portugal has a huge failure to respond to the needs of people in need of care. There needs to be a paradigm shift. The reaction cannot be carried out only in homes or institutions where people have to live. independent,” said Mariana Mortagua.

The BE coordinator attended a boccia training session this Saturday at a school set up by the Almada Seixal Cerebral Palsy Association and, in statements to journalists, defended that greater investment from the state is needed to enable these people to lead an independent life, including playing sports. .

“We are here to remind you that supporting people with disabilities means respecting their autonomy, and for this there should be funding for personal assistants. Personal assistants enable people to live independent lives,” he said, adding that when it comes to adapted sports , it is also necessary to provide all the needs that allow this, for example, travel to locations.

According to Diana Santos, Bloc de Esquerda candidate for the Setúbal constituency, the pilot project for personal assistants currently covers one thousand people, with the government proposing to expand it to three thousand people, but BE defends its universalization to cover all people with more than 60 people. percentage of disability.

“What we know and what the experience of other countries in Europe and the world tells us is that anyone with personal assistance can live their life the way they want. In Portugal, we have personal assistance with reduced hours, continuing to delegate to families the responsibility for meeting hours that the assistant cannot guarantee due to lack of funds,” he said.

Speaking about the boccia school operating in the municipality of Seixal, the BE leader said that partly thanks to municipal support, more help could be given to the adapted sport, since there were “huge regional differences” in the country.

For this reason, he argues that it is the state that must take on this responsibility for inclusion policies for people with disabilities.

“We were here this Saturday visiting an important center that allows for adapted sports. We have spoken to dozens of athletes who practice bocce every day, it is important that the country knows the best practices, but that they are universal and understand what prevents so many people from being able to play the sport,” he stressed.