Mealhada received a seal of merit from the Caring for Informal Caregivers Movement

The Municipality of Mealhada was one of the 59 in the country that received the seal of merit from the Caring for Informal Caregivers Movement, within the scope of the 3rd edition of the Network of Local Authorities that Care for Informal Caregivers (RACCI).

This project’s mission is to recognize municipalities and parishes across the country with the best practices and support measures for the benefit of informal caregivers. Mealhada was recognized for the “Caring, Intervening, Dignifying” project.

“Implemented by the Municipality of Mealhada, ‘Caring, Intervening, Dignifying’ is a program that aims to provide psychological support for caregivers by specialized technicians, monitoring the filling out of forms and requests for social and health support, the creation of decentralized service offices in all parishes of the municipality for proximity service and the carrying out of awareness-raising and training actions, psychosocial support and promotion of health literacy”, reads a municipal statement.

In total, the jury of the Network of Local Authorities that Care for Informal Caregivers initiative, of the Caring for Caregivers Movement, analyzed 66 projects from local authorities. Of these, projects from 59 local authorities were recognized which, according to representatives of the associations that make up the Movement and who evaluated them, stood out for meeting the defined criteria, and were therefore awarded a Seal of Merit.

The jury was made up of members of the Movement, namely: Catarina Alvarez, representing Alzheimer Portugal, Celeste Campinho, president of the Thyroid Diseases Association, Margarida Costa, representing the Portuguese League Against Cancer, Palmira Martins, representing RD Portugal and Vítor Neves, president of EuropaColon.

We remember that, among other measures, for example, the Government approved, in 2021, a five-day leave for non-main informal caregivers, thus providing “the right to miss 15 days, without loss of rights except remuneration, for informal caregivers not recognized by the needs of the person being cared for (family member up to the 4th degree in a direct and collateral line)”. A 2020 study showed that close to 1.4 million people in Portugal were informal caregivers.