Sooner or later, families end up having to face this situation: dealing with a family member in a state of dependency. When the time comes to have help to care for an elderly person who is in these circumstances, the first thing that must be taken into consideration, to consider the different possibilities available, is the degree of dependency that they present.
Someone is considered to be dependent when they have a loss in their functional autonomy, be it more or less severe. What prevents you from doing daily activities or routines on your own, you need the help of other people to manage. The reasons can be multiple, such as physical or mobility problems. Also certain sensory limitations, for example, a deafness or poor vision. And the consumption of drugs or other cognitive conditions, Alzheimer’s disease being a very common one. But, as already mentioned, there are different levels of dependency.
At the moment when an older person is no longer capable of maintaining their full autonomy and independence, and requires the help of other people to function in their day-to-day lives, their level of dependency must be assessed. In this way it will be possible to decide what degree of care is required for her well-being.
This scale is regulated by what is known as the Dependency Law, a term that refers to Law 39/2006, of December 14, on the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for people in a situation of dependency. This law, approved in 2006, establishes the different degrees of dependency with which older people in this state must be classified. How is this determined? Through the Dependency Situation Assessment Scale (BVD), which gives a score from 0 to 100.
