What we do
We help members of communities in Portugal as they age in 2 ways:
1) To Be Prepared In Case of an Emergency
2) To Organize Non-medical Support Services while under medical care.
1. Be Prepared in Case of an Emergency
We offer tools and workshops that ensure that you are prepared in case an accident sends you to a hospital emergency room. While we hope this never happens to you, falling down in the house or tripping over something are common emergency situations that occur as we age.
By having an “In Case of Emergency” document in your home or on your phone, emergency personnel will know critical health information about you and who to contact. Having an Advance Directive that is in your SNS medical history file helps hospital personnel to know your wishes should you arrive in an unconscious state.
Create your Emergency Checklist
This is a document for emergency services personnel, as well as for your family and friends. It details your medical history.
Understand the Advance Directive
This is a 4-pages-form from SNS for you to complete and send to SNS. It is a basic form that assists the medical community.
Attend our Workshops & Events
We offer educational workshops and programs, both in-person in Setúbal and online, to help you navigate essential tools.
2. Non-medical Support Services
When you, a friend or a family member is hospitalized or recovering at home, non-medical support is necessary for a smooth recovery. Help is needed to provide meals, contact family and friends, assist family arriving from out of town, provide pet care, transport to medical appointments, visitations and other support services may be required.
Our 100% volunteer teams can help. However, we also understand that when a person is suffering a medical situation, help from strangers may cause unwanted stresses.
This is why we also share with you the processes and the tools we have found invaluable in identifying and organizing the specific support necessary during recovery, long term care and end-of-life-situations. Each situation will be unique, so we are also available to help you get started using the tools.
Our core values of Community, Compassion, Courage, Respect and Action are the foundation for our Non-medical Support services.
What follows is the process we use to organize care.
We call it ACT. Assess. Coordinate. Track.
You can use this same process too.
1. Assess. We seek to know about the situation, needs, and any additional relevant details. We take great care to be compassionate and respectful of privacy.
2. Coordinate. Using the tools Meal Train® and CaringBridge™, we work with the patient (or patient representative), family and friends to assign and schedule tasks, meals, pet care, shopping, transportation and other specific needs. In this way, the patient can be worry-free in terms of support. For more information about these tools, click here.
3. Track. Recovery needs often change. Continuing care and review of needs for the patient and the support team is critical. Over time, less or maybe more assistance is required. As well, different support locations or persons may be necessary. Tracking patient progress and needs ensures nothing is overlooked.