Abstract

A social study was carried out in two counties of central Chile, where a universe of 4.390 older persons was found and 320 were part of a sample that helped to gather the evidence obtained in a cross sectional model research. The aim of this study was to gain knowledge regarding the social inclusion of elderly people with disabilities into the community. The actual legislation provides several opportunities to prevent and take care of elderly people with disabilities, most of them are health and social programs nationwide, but whether these strategies and programs reached the final beneficiaries remained unclear. A survey was administered to old persons with disabilities and their families in the context of a project supported by the ministry of social development. The objective was to examine the gap of social inclusion in four main domains and to determine the level of satisfaction with the services provided by the government and the community. Most of the subjects were involved in self organized community groups and some were passive participant of NGOs and social groups organized by municipalities. The results showed that social inclusion was not sufficient to the degree of expectative the beneficiaries had. Four dimensions were identified as critical being these: managing, resources, communication and social participation. They all had a high correlation to the perceived needs for social integration and inclusion. These findings were obtained regardless the type and degree of disability of the subjects which led us to identify a comprehensive repertoire of strategies that could close the gaps, such strategies were conceived under a co-creative model which attempted to involve the agents of interest in a meaningful path to specific solutions.