•New

The Independent Life Centre (CVI), formed by Mutuam and Mutual Mèdica, is a new facility created to provide comprehensive assistance to people with disabilities and the elderly. To achieve this, the centre reproduces a fully accessible and domotic apartment where users can access the latest technical and technological aids while a multidisciplinary team, with the aid of researchers from UPC, carries out a personalized diagnosis of the most suitable elements for minimizing the person's dependence.

For this purpose, the University will have a research laboratory at the centre in which, through the UPC Chair of Accessibility, researchers from the university will be able to adapt the elements to the particular needs of the users, validate prototypes and new technologies developed at the University to facilitate day-to-day activities, and use the detected needs to initiate new research projects.

UPC has also made a study of the latest technologies for conditioning this space in an accessible digital apartment; i.e., for increasing the independence of people with disabilities and the elderly. This laboratory will make the Independent Life Centre a reference in research, development and innovation, and in the validation of support products and technology applied to dependent persons.

There are currently 322,000 dependent people in Catalonia, of whom 210,000 are over 65 years of age. In addition, the number of disabled persons is approximately 357,000. The centre, managed by the Association for Independent Life, responds to the need to provide this growing group with greater autonomy and independence. The use of advanced-assistance technologies by healthcare professionals in combination with technology experts produces excellent results for this group of people, who see an improvement in their personal autonomy and quality of life, allowing them to remain in their own homes for longer, with the necessary adaptations.