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Tony Bryant
Marbella
Friday, 9 May 2025, 11:43
The United Nationalities of Marbella Summit (UNMS) returns to Marbella on Tuesday 20 May at 11.30am, an event that will bring together charities, associations and key stakeholders to foster collaboration and develop sustainable solutions for the local elderly community. This year's event, which, for the past few years has been held in November, was brought forward several months due to the "importance of the topic".
President of UNMS, Nicole King, said the event at The Harbour restaurant in the town centre port will help raise awareness of issues that affect English-speaking senior citizens.
Previous summits have included projects aimed at helping unemployed youngsters with temporary accommodation until they get back on their feet, suicide prevention and animal welfare.
"The way the topic comes about each year is by looking at what has gone on over the last year. We look at which is the most prevalent and then decide what can be done about it," Nicole told SUR in English.
This year's subject was prompted by the "terrible situation" a friend's 94-year-old mother was subjected to after suddenly falling ill while staying on the Costa last Christmas.
"I realised that most of the inquires I had over the last six months or so were to do with medical or health problems faced by the elderly. There are a lot of issues that come up that need fixing that the council isn't necessarily responsible for. Many people think that organisations like Age Care will supply home nursing and services such as this, but they simply cannot," she said.
Nicole, presenter of the Good Morning Spain and Marbella Now television programmes, also feels there is an "extreme lack of coordination" between local organisations and the health service, which is why this year's event is aimed at the whole of the Costa del Sol, and not just Marbella.
Those attending the event, which has the collaboration of the Support in Spain platform, include the foreign residents' department of Mijas town hall, Soroptimist, Afesol, Age Concern and La Cala de Mijas Lions. Nicole is hoping to secure the participation of other organisations that offer services to English-speaking senior citizens.
"Together we can be better as a lobbying group, rather than individual organisations. Although many have Spanish speakers on board, one of the things that many of them lack is someone who has real Spanish knowhow, especially when it comes to health services. They need to be pushy and demand what they need, but they don't understand that they need to be persistent," she said.
One of the ways in which she intends to offer a better service to these people is to employ some one, who, "maybe three days a week", could run the helpline and who has knowledge of the way things are done, or more to the point, what is necessary to do in order to get the help and assistance they may require.
"The only way to make this work is to have someone whose duty is simply making phone calls on behalf of patients, someone who will follow through and make a nuisance of themselves so that the authorities do something about it," she explained.
The summit will focus on several key challenges, such as bridging the gaps in support, establishing a centralised helpline, improving access to social and health care and overcoming language barriers.
"Local organisations do a great job, but I think people expect far too much from them. I think that by coordinating, they could support each other and offer a better service in general," she concluded.
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