The great challenge of supporting adults with disabilities

The Department of Sociology and Social Work of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Comillas CIHS) organised the conference "Harmonising rights. Progress and challenges of Law 8/2021, of 2 June, on support for adults with disabilities". At the conference, various experts from several national and foreign institutions analysed, in a series of round tables, some of the aspects of this law, now in its fourth year of implementation, which replaced the old guardianship model with one that respects each person's preferences and decisions.

Almudena Lastra, senior prosecutor for the Community of Madrid, indicated that "the summary of this law is almost a mathematical formula that we call the triple A: if we add support to accessibility, the result is autonomy for people with disabilities. During her keynote speech, entitled "Impact of Law 8/2021, of 2 June, on the legal system and on the lives of adults with disabilities", Lastra stated that "we all support each other, and if we do not, the alternative is that we are barriers, so we have to choose".

As Ana Dávila-Ponce de León, Minister for Family, Youth and Social Affairs of the Community of Madrid, pointed out, the law has brought new legal, social and organisational challenges, and she highlighted the work of the Madrid Agency for the Support of Adults with Disabilities (AMAPAD), which "works meticulously, performing an absolutely essential task and ensuring that the rights of these people are respected at all times."

In this regard, Antonio Allende SJ, rector of Comillas, also assured that with this law "we are moving from a logic based on 'protecting at the expense of limiting' to one that is committed to supporting while respecting autonomy. This requires us to take a new approach that places the person at the centre, recognises their abilities, accompanies their needs and always respects their dignity". In addition, the rector recalled that the university's commitment is to "train professionals capable of accompanying this transformation, generating rigorous knowledge that improves public policies, and actively contributing to the social impact that this law pursues."

For Jorge Uroz, director of the Department of Sociology and Social Work at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Comillas CIHS), "this conference leaves us with three fundamental lessons: rights are harmonised when we work together; support must be personalised and flexible; and the law sets a horizon, but practice makes it real." He also announced that next year the university will offer a new degree in Social Work with a specialisation in Health. "We are the first and only university in Spain to offer a specialisation to future graduates in Social Work in the field of health," he announced.