Portugal has a long history of fragmented attempts to create public and political awareness for an interministerial and intersectoral Health and Longevity Plan, marked by disruptions and orientation changes following electoral cycles, without a stable consensus having been reached on the way forward. There are gaps, sectorizations, and difficult dialogues between the various actors involved, particularly between sectors that should collaborate in an integrated manner.
Private Social Solidarity Institutions constantly face sustainability challenges due to wage evolution, human resources mobility, families' financial difficulties, and support for the most disadvantaged. CNIS has warned about the growing variabilities in the needs of a population undergoing demographic, cultural, and technological evolution, having developed studies in 2016 and 2018 on the role of IPSS as health promoters and on the health diagnosis of the populations they serve.
IPSS are actively involved in the National Network of Integrated Continuing Care, reducing the systematic use of emergency services, promoting autonomy and independence throughout life, and preventing social isolation. These institutions frequently provide care beyond what the State subsidizes, being in many territories the only social response and employer available.
The article calls for effective political recognition of the social protection function of IPSS, rather than maintaining a path centered on the distance of the decision-making State. Professor Américo Mendes, in studies promoted by CNIS, states that the solidarity sector contributes to social cohesion, territorial cohesion, and collective health, and that a political perspective should be developed that recognizes its role in social emergencies.
