Cáritas Coimbra shared the challenges, needs and opportunities for the social sector presented by the pandemic
Carina Dantas (Caritas Coimbra) accepted Fi Group Portugal’s invitation and participated, on the 20th of November, in a webinar on the topic Health 2021-23: funding challenges and opportunities. Carina Dantas shared the main needs and challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic poses on the social sector, as well as the opportunities to minimize its impact.
The panel discussion also included presentations by Isabel Rocha, vice-chancellor at Universidade Nova de Lisboa; Andreia Jesus, Funding Manager at Glintt; Patrícia Calado, National Contact Point for Health in Horizon 2020 and Marta Bento, Head of Strategic Planning, and Innovation at CUF. António Valente, Commercial Director at FI Group Portugal moderated the discussion.
Carina Dantas started by saying that the pandemic is an opportunity for solving problems that already existed before but are now exposed. Dantas also mentioned the connection between social care and health care, and that they should not be separated. According to the institution representative’s opinion, more intensive work should be done in prevention, which she considers being one of the main current needs, not only in the health sector but also in social care.
The topic of technologies helping the social and health services was also addressed at the webinar, in which Carina Dantas mentioned the problem about using personal data of the population and questions about digital literacy, health and the current need for higher literacy in data.
When asked about the proximity of the technologies with the market, Carina Dantas referred to the current work done by Caritas Coimbra in the ongoing projects (approximately 25) in which they are participating, all with a technological component, involving robotics, avatars and platforms for beneficiaries and carers.
Moreover, SHAFE, the European Stakeholders network, is working towards the goal of getting the attention from political representatives, organizations, and citizens for the need of an alignment between health, social care, friendly environments and Information and communications technology (ICT), at the political level as well as at the funding level. Carina Dantas referred to this concept as an important model for the integration of different stakeholders in a global strategy of joint work.
The webinar is available online (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtrCnG5AuNw&feature=youtu.be) for the ones interested in listening to the interventions by the speakers about funding options and priority actions to counter the COVID crisis in the health and social sectors.
