On December 20th, Misericórdia de Riba de Ave inaugurated two new facilities dedicated to dementia care: the Palliative Care Unit and the Day Care and Autonomy Promotion Unit, two projects that are part of CIDIFAD - the Centre for Research, Diagnosis, Training and Dementia Care, located in the town of Riba de Ave, near the Narciso Ferreira hospital. 

The inauguration was presided over by the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, who visited the facilities and described the project as ‘forward-looking’.

The minister guaranteed the government's support for these new services, which she sees as one of the great challenges of the future.

‘It's a project that addresses one of society's most significant challenges - the provision of health care in dementia and old age - and we have to do everything we can to live longer and live better, guaranteeing good preventive care and humanised health care,’ pointing out that the infrastructure is a good example of this, due to the multidisciplinary team of excellence, with equipment and technology capable of offering all the answers in this area.

The Palliative Care Unit has capacity for 20 beds and the Day Care and Autonomy Promotion Unit can accommodate up to 30 users, while also providing support for families.

It aims to provide integrated long-term care to stimulate, maintain, promote autonomy and support people with varying degrees of dependency, without the need for hospitalisation. 

‘It's an important response for the local and regional community. To this is added the close interconnection of the network of professionals and services, with a particular focus on research and training,’ said the Mayor, Mário Passos. 

The mayor listed the many investments that are being made in the area of health in the municipality, particularly in the field of primary health care ‘where we are taking important steps in the requalification of spaces in order to better serve the population of the municipality’.