The Pharmacists' Association signs up to the Radars project

This community project, in which 877 shops and over 1200 local volunteers are participating, ensures that some 712 elderly people do not experience exclusion and isolation.

Barcelona City Council and the Pharmacists' Association have entered into a collaboration agreement to extend the Radars network, a community project set up in 2008 to protect and prevent the isolation and exclusion of 712 elderly people, and which has already been established in 31 of the city's neighbourhoods. The aim of this agreement is to turn the 495 pharmacies taking part into one of the cornerstones of the project, as a meeting point for establishing links between people and as a space for exchanging experiences or holding health-education talks.

The Deputy Mayor for Social Rights, Laia Ortiz, has highlighted how Radars “is an extraordinary example of the community's involvement in the quality of life of its own residents”, and praised the rise in the number of participants in the project, which is continuing to grow stronger. “A rich, active, involved and committed community life is social capital, which is as valuable as economic capital”.

For his part, the Chair of the Barcelona Pharmacists' Association, Jordi de Dalmases, has remarked how “satisfying the renewal of this Agreement is for the profession, as it allows us to demonstrate once again the social utility of pharmacies and the commitment they have to people. We are the most local health players and, thanks to projects such as Radars, we can launch initiatives that fulfil our aim to contribute value to the environment and, more specifically, improve the quality of life of the elderly, who are one of the main groups we attend to in pharmacies”.

Various associations, over 1,200 local residents and 877 neighbourhood shops and services are collaborating with Radars, to strengthen a community network that helps to detect loneliness among elderly people, and takes preventive action to boost the independence of elderly people who are still able to enjoy it. Trinitat Vella, Roquetes, Sarrià and Tres Torres are the latest neighbourhoods to have joined the project, which is aiming to extend to 70% of the city within three years.