Desafíos del Sistema Español de Atención a la Dependencia. Reflexiones a la luz del perfil de las personas potencialmente dependientes

Abstract

The protection of dependent persons has been organised in Spain through a protective system that was created in the Act 39/2006. Ten years later, the Commission for the Analysis of the Dependency Situation was created, which published in 2017 a report to determine the areas for improvement of the Spanish Dependency System. The report points out, among other aspects, the convenience of knowing more about the profile of potentially dependent persons, in order to be able to evaluate and adapt the system to the real needs of dependent persons in the next decade. This paper analyses some of the characteristics of this particularly vulnerable group on the basis of recent sociological studies and surveys by the National Institute of Statistics. These studies reveal some characteristics of the relational network of potentially dependent people, as well as their health conditions and their capacity for social participation, which may be useful for public policy makers to adopt measures to complement and improve the current protection system.