Formentera's elderly care home will share resources, operate in tandem with Day Centre

ResidenciaEarlier this morning, draft plans were unveiled for Formentera's future senior citizens' residence. Three officials—Jaume Ferrer, president of the Formentera Council, Fina Santiago, the Govern's chief of social services and cooperation, and Santiago's opposite number here on the island—presided over the gathering while Xico Ribas, senior staffer at the CiF Office of Infrastructure, and Andreu Horrach, director general of the Palma administration's department of land, were also in tow.

Construction and funding
One of the new project's star features its proposed location. Officials hope to erect the residence on CiF-held land adjacent to the Formentera Day Centre, a lot that currently serves as a car park for patients and staff. Estimates put the cost of the new building at €1.2m, 70% of which will be picked up by the regional government and 30% by the Formentera Council. Regional subsidies on care for dependent individuals (which range from €63 to 68 per day) mean the building's operating costs will also be shared.

Capacity
The proposed building, whose 14 single and two double rooms are designed to accommodate 18 people, will communicate with the Formentera Day Centre by means of a hallway. According to Xico Ribas, by linking the two buildings, the goal is to take advantage of resources like kitchens, laundry rooms and physical therapy equipment that the Day Centre has already.

President Ferrer hailed Ms Santiago's visit, which was intended to dovetail with the new project's unveiling. As the CiF chair put it, construction of the residence is the latest step in a crusade that began ten years ago with the creation of the Formentera hospital, “so that residents can be born and die with dignity”. “With this new centre,” he pledged, “people who until recently were forced off the island will be able to stay.”