70 women between 55 and 90 years of age from the centres for the promotion of personal autonomy of the Consell de Mallorca have participated in this pilot experience.
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IMAS
Breaking taboos, fighting and demystifying the hypothesis that relates older women with sexuality and offering resources on sexual education and health focused on this group. With this objective, the Institut Mallorquí d’Afers Socials (IMAS) has carried out the ORG Project, a pilot experience in which 70 women between 55 and 90 years of age from the seven IMAS centres for the promotion of personal autonomy (CPAP) have participated.
“The aim of Project ORG is that sexuality is perceived as a fundamental part of health, which helps us to maintain physical, emotional and social wellbeing”, explained one of its directors, Katya Fernández, who added that “it is based on a need expressed by the users themselves. Nowadays there is a diversity of resources related to sex education, but they are all focused on the young and adult population, and not so much on older people. There are still many prejudices that prevent us from advancing in this field”.
The Councillor for Social Welfare and President of IMAS, Guillermo Sánchez, was present at the event held today at the CPAP Can Real in Petra, where the results of this initiative were analysed, coinciding with International Women’s Day. “Experiences like this highlight the importance and the need to give older women the role they deserve and also show us that it is possible to change behaviours that, without wanting to, we have internalised through a public intervention project”, she stressed.
The conclusions of the project show that while at the beginning of the workshop, 81.5% of the participants recognised that sexuality is part of health, after 24 sessions, 100% considered it to be an essential part of good physical and mental health. Along these lines, a representative of the 70 participants acknowledged during the event that “this project has made them reflect and understand the importance of talking about sexuality without fear”.
“A very recurrent question in the sessions was how they can experience sexuality at their age. We have been able to work on this aspect and we have made them understand that they have to learn to manage the changes caused by age and to enjoy them. The limitations are set by ourselves,” explained sexologist Leticia Calle, who participated in the project. “Scientific evidence says that age does not make it difficult to enjoy sex. But despite this, the sexuality of older people, especially women, is one of the great secrets of our culture”, she said.
In addition to this professional, other profiles have worked on the project, such as therapists from La Maleta Roja, social educators, sex educators and auxiliary care technicians. They all agreed on “the need to continue promoting spaces like this, where it has been proven that the sexual life of older women is not over, neither culturally nor emotionally, and that they can also enjoy a full, satisfactory and positive sexual life. We are attributed a caregiving profile and our personal and private life is put on the back burner. We have to continue working on the importance of valuing their time, valuing themselves and permitting themselves to enjoy themselves”, said Alejandra Pizá, also director of the project.
In addition to the president of IMAS, the event was also attended by the island’s director of Community Care and Promotion of Personal Autonomy, Catalina Maria Mascaró, as well as organisations and professionals in the field, associations and representatives of the CPAPs of Palma, Felanitx, Manacor, Puigpunyent and Llucmajor.