Marbella nationalities summit focuses on elderly community

The United Nationalities of Marbella Summit (UNMS) returned to The Harbour restaurant in the town centre port on Tuesday 20 May, an event that saw the participation of several charities, associations and official administrators who came together to foster collaboration and develop sustainable solutions for the local elderly community.

President of UNMS, Nicole King, said the event, which she described as “an enormous success once again”, was organised to help raise awareness of issues that affect English-speaking senior citizens on the coast.

With the collaboration of the Support in Spain platform, those who attended the event, which for the first time focused on the whole of the Costa del Sol, and not just Marbella, included the foreign residents' department of Mijas town hall, the British Chamber of Commerce, Hadas Caradas, Age Care and branches of Age Concern, and La Cala de Mijas Lions. British vice-consul Miriam Pérez also participated in the summit, showing her concern about the situation the elderly face.

King, presenter of the Good Morning Spain and Marbella Now television programmes, said that this year’s subject was prompted after learning of the difficulties faced by a friend's 94-year-old mother who became ill while staying on the Costa last Christmas.

Under the banner of ‘Before it happens to you’, among the topics discussed was the need for better coordination between local organisations and charities that offer support to senior citizens, and the need to supply home nursing to those with financial problems, which, as King pointed out, is supplied at the moment in the province by Hadas Caradas.

The summit also focused on other key challenges, such as improving access to healthcare and overcoming language barriers; and the possibility of employing someone to run a central helpline who speaks Spanish, and, more importantly, has knowledge of the way the Spanish social and healthcare system works.

“We have already agreed to do follow-up meetings every three months with Mijas town hall. I very much look forward to being part of the community giving back to such a worthy cause. As was highlighted so brilliantly today, I will need this help in return one day,” King concluded.