Católica presents study on the impact of the pandemic on IPSS and its users in Portugal
On the day that it was pointed out a year after the appearance of the first COVID-19 case in Portugal, a team of researchers from Católica in Porto presented the study "Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on IPSS and its users in Portugal", carried out in collaboration with CNIS - Portuguese Confederation of Solidarity Institutions. In an online session with more than 350 participants, the researchers presented the study involving 329 IPSS from across the country, which allowed them to draw a picture of how IPSS in Portugal reacted to the pandemic.
At the opening of the session, Isabel Braga da Cruz, president of the Regional Centre of Porto of Católica, left a note to "all those who work in IPSS every day," revealing the deep respect she has "for these people who work daily with conditions, sometimes impossible. What this study showed was the ability to reinvent themselves."
During the session, the researchers presented the study and explained that from 329 IPSS and similar institutions that answered to the survey, it was possible to obtain "a balanced set of quantitative and qualitative data.” This allowed a descriptive characterization of the phenomenon under study and, above all, allowed the identification of the perceptions, needs, challenges, responses and stories of these institutions. At the end of the study, the researchers included a set of final considerations and recommendations.
For CNIS president, Lino Maia, "IPSS demonstrated responsiveness and acted quickly in a scenario of great confusion and uncertainty." The president of CNIS also said that IPSS "have adapted and mobilized endogenous and exogenous resources that have translated into flexible and creative responses."
The coordinator of the Transversal Area of The Social Economy of Católica in Porto, Américo Mendes, explained that "it is necessary that what happened and what was described in this work have practical consequences in terms of some structural changes that need to happen in the way public authorities and society relate to IPSS".
The study was developed by the researchers: Ana Bragança, Marta Horta, Filipe Martins (coordinator), Filipe Pinto (coordinator), Vanessa Marcos, Américo Carvalho Mendes, Joana Morais and Castro, and Sofia Mexia Alves.
The study is available here.