The meeting was organized by the Spokepersons’ Office, which is hiring a new member that represents the voice of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
On January 24th, the Spokepersons’ Office of the Millennium Institute for Care Research, MICARE, met with experts by experience from the Caring Institutions Network at Universidad Andrés Bello. The aim of the meeting was to inform about the recruitment of a new representative of the intellectual disability community.
Currently, the Spokepersons’ Office has three experts by experience representing the voice of people with intellectual disability and one representing older people. These experts participate in various activities that help to generate knowledge about care and support for these communities.
The meeting began with the presentation by experts by experience Carolina Lucero, Felipe Pierret and Ricardo Pizarro, who described their role and answered questions from the audience.
“We are not only a team of spokespersons with our own ideas, we come together to make our voice heard and MICARE encourages us to do it”, said the experts. “We want to make this grow and continue. We want to inspire other people to stand up for their rights”, they added.
Simón Guajardo, the Spokepersons’ Office facilitator, shared the progress of a new protocol created by MICARE that shares knowledge to establish similar spokepersons’ offices.
The protocol, said Simón Guajardo, is a tool to promote the participation of people with intellectual disabilities in decision making, to empower them and to change social perceptions. The professional added that the document “is designed to help organizations implement inclusive practices aligned with the intellectual disability community’s rights and needs”.
One of the attendants, Maybelline Concha, from Fundación ConTrabajo, commented on her interest in the work of MICARE’s Spokepersons’ Office. “ I think that it is important to help people with intellectual disabilities and to bring our experience to light”. Along her, Alejandra Camelio, director of quality of life at Fundación ConTrabajo, valued the new protocol. “I find it a very interesting proposal and I think we should consider it”, she said.
