The above scene is from the only documentary that will represent Latin America at the 2021 Oscars, which describes and exposes the reality experienced not only in one, but in most Long-Term Care Establishments for Older Adults (ELEAM), generally known as homes, residences and nursing homes in Chile.
There are currently more than 1,900 ELEAMs in our country (Marcos Singer, 2020) of various characteristics: for-profit and non-profit, large and small, and those with or without health authorization. In most cases, they go unnoticed behind the facade of a house or residence like any other in your neighborhood. But inside homes, there is a world that tells what institutionalized elderly people are experiencing. “El Agente Topo” shows a small part of this world, from the various activities and services provided, to the connection they have (or not) with their environment.
Approaching this panorama, and generating a feeling as real as the one this documentary manages to convey, opens up a series of concerns, emotions and questions: What is the work of the ELEAM like? Do they receive support? Who is responsible for their quality standards? What has become of them lately? Questions with shades of concern, taking into account that older adults are among the most affected by the pandemic. In addition, this age group has been an invisible sector of the population for years within society.
2020 was an unprecedented year in which multiple initiatives emerged that sought to support and strengthen the ELEAMs. Not only in dealing with the health crisis in the best possible way, but also addressing the great challenge of supporting them in improving their management and the quality of care they provide to each of their residents from Arica to Punta Arenas.
The creation of public-private alliances was fundamental in this challenge, where the Simón de Cirene Corporation, in alliance with the National Service for the Elderly, SENAMA, was a relevant actor in the field of civil society. The implementation and coordination of these projects made it possible to save 405 lives of older adults, prevent 1,468 infections and avoid 857 hospitalizations in critical beds (Marcos Singer, 2020).
On the other hand, in the pilot project “Piensa en Grandes”, 17 households in the process of formalization were supported to improve their management in a comprehensive manner, through training, socio-health support and delivery of supplies for their beneficiaries, consolidating a model to be able to support more ELEAM in their strengthening processes.
Stories, in this case a documentary shown on Netflix, allow us to learn about realities and make visible contexts and problems that we may not be familiar with. These same contexts become visible in states of catastrophe, where the extreme need for help makes us look again at what was always before our eyes.
Let us make this contingency create the union that we most need: that of a society that safeguards the rights of our elderly and fights against their isolation and abandonment. And without the need for a documentary or a pandemic, this thought becomes part of the general Chilean culture.
As Don Sergio Chamy said in his report: “Loneliness is the worst thing about this place.” And it is not an act, it is a reality in our country.