Asociacion Salud y Familia – ASF

Asociación Salud y Familia is a non-profit association funded in Barcelona in 1986 with the aim to provide assistance to individuals in accordance with the principle of impartiality related to their origin, race, sex, nationality, social status and religion in the medical, psychological, intercultural, social and legal aspects.

ASF gives special priority to family and reproductive health, including family planning and abortion as well as family relationships and basic needs of health, social support and settlement.

FAMILIES: In ASF view, ‘families’ are all the primary structures of life support that crystallize in plural forms of living together and, therefore, include, among others:

a) Diversity of origin, race and nationality: native families, migrant families, ethnic minority families, transnational families.

b) Diversity of sexual and generational composition: heterosexual families, single parents, homosexual families, blended families, regrouped families.

PROGRAMMES:

Asociación Salud y Familia designs and manages public and private programmes -in a operational and specific way- aimed at reducing social inequality among families of different composition and origin as well as providing assistance to the most vulnerable members of households, i.e. minors, women and elderly people. The programmes cover areas such as family and reproductive health and provide care to families in situation of vulnerability and/or need in matters of health, social support and settlement.

Asociación Salud y Familia endorses collaborative agreements, if deemed appropriate, with public and private institutions, centres and people acting on these issues.

Safe Motherhood:

This programme is oriented to women and families who belong to socioeconomic risk groups, independent of their race or civil status. Services provided:

• Immediate contraception – offers the option of long-term contraception after an abortion and postpartum.
• Counselling for legal interruption of pregnancy directed at women who belong to socioeconomic risk groups.
• Family couselling for women and couples diagnoses with foetal malformations or risk.
• Detection of domestic violence identifies and supports women in situations where there is a risk of domestic violence.

The programme works closely with public family planning centres, the Social Services network and primary health care centres in Catalonia. Learn more…

Mothers Between Two Cultures:

The health of immigrant mothers and their children below the age of three is a scene of unmet needs in term reproductive health, inoculation provision, child nutrition and stimulation of psychomotor development among others.

Thanks to the collaboration of four public hospitals in Catalonia, the programme aims to design and promote intercultural education activities for immigrant mothers from various places – creating groups of immigrant mothers from Latino America, Maghreb, China and Pakistan – all with children under the age of three. Learn more…

Compass:

This programme aims to spread awareness on rights among women from all origins and socioeconomic levels. If women are aware of their rights and know how to use them, they can make better choices on which aspects of their family life to change, if they wish so, how to gain respect in family conflict situations and how to resolve family conflict situations in a way that is favourable to them and their children.

Legal Service in Family Law:

Legal counseling on family regrouping (administrative procedures and requirements), women’s rights, transnational movement of minors, filiation and recognition of paternity proceedings, financial assistance for children, separation divorce and custody, visitation schedule and maintenance for children, domestic violence.

Psychological support for personal and family life:

The programme provides psychological support to women from all origins and socioeconomic levels in order to enable them to clarify their own ideas, thier role in the family and the society, and to think about what is more convenient for them, facing in a pro-active way many of the changes happening in their lives; learning to negotiate with their partners and/or family members on the different ways of combining work and family life; facing family and partner conflicts, without blaming themselves or becoming isolated or deadlocked.

Moreover, the programme helps women in facing every-day concerns like raising children, living with teens, single motherhood, family regrouping of partners and/or children, work-life balance. Finally, it provides support to women involved in separation and divorce, abandonment and relationship break-ups or being victims of domestic violence.

Intercultural Mediation in Health care Centers:

This programme provide training for intercultural mediators working directly at health centres in order to facilitate mutual understanding, not only of languages but also of cultures, among patients and healthcare personnel, fostering a better quality of the healthcare and making it easier for all the staff involved to do their jobs.

This programme aims to facilitate the integration of foreign people into their host culture, but also wants to contribute to the transformation of host culture institutions, helping them to adapt to cultural diversity. Learn more…

Time Banking:

Time banking is a communitarian tool that allows newcomers to integrate, increases intergenerational exchange and reconciles personal, family and working life in conditions of gender equality.

ASF’s programme promotes time banking and provides support for the creation of networks for exchanging time among groups of people lining or working in the same neighbourhoods, towns or cities. Learn more…

Network of Wellcoming Families for Immigrants:

A welcoming family is a family who’s deep-rooted in Catalonya, who supports new-migrated families, providing them basic information on the most frequent services and procedures needed by the immigrant families. Learn more…

EUROPEAN PROGRAMMES (2009-2011)

DAPHNE Programme: “Violence in the couple and professional inclusion”

Asociación Salud y Familia contributes to the development of good practices on fighting violence against women. ASF participated in the design of pilot testing and professional training modules, and in disseminating leaflets and posters on the prevention of violence against women.

LEONARDO JuSCA Programme: “Les professions juridiques en contexte social et leur impact sur la formation continue à la citoyenneté active des migrants”

Asociación Salud y Familia contributes to the creation of innovative training modules for stakeholders of legal aid services for migrants. The main goal is the combination of legal, psychosocial and educational approach in multi-cultural contexts of daily practice.

GRUNDTVIG Programme: “Training and Action in Time Banks”

Asociación Salud y Familia promotes the development of Time Banks. The Action promotes the exchange of good practices on training of volunteer people involved in Time Banks activities, collecting the plurality of training experiences shared, and dissaminating them among Time Banks.

INTI Programme: “Migrants’ Territorial Integration Index”

Asociación Salud y Familia conducted the study and edition of “Measuring integration: the case of Spain. Territorial Index of Social Integration and Employment of non-Eu immigrants”.