INTEGRAL COOPERATIVA DE SALUT
● Do you know its Impact?
Integral, Cooperativa de Salut is a cooperative project focused on integral health. For more than 38 years, they have been accompanying and improving the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of individuals, organisations and communities. They offer health services (consultations and guidance), outreach activities (conferences and publications) and training (courses and workshops).
Esmeralda Imaz has been a member and the cooperative’s manager since 2018, and she currently oversees Management and Communication. Her passion is escaping to nature and enjoying life with her large family and friends.
What impacts you most about your cooperative?
The path we have travelled, the cooperative’s resilience and adaptability, and above all, the more than 40,000 people we have accompanied throughout their life processes over these 38 years.
It is a collective initiative aimed at meeting the needs of the professionals and users of health services, with democratic governance, a feminist perspective, coherence with our values and a commitment to social transformation, contributing to the social and solidarity economy.
We understand Integral as a living organism, and the members work to fulfil its founding mission: to accompany and improve the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of people and communities.
A health cooperative to care and to be cared for.
When did you start and why?
More than 38 years ago (1985), building on the magazine Integral (1978), focused on ecology and health, “Integral, medical and health centre” was born—an integrative and holistic health and medical centre that was revolutionary at the time due to its teamwork approach and its multidisciplinary and holistic view of the person, health disorders and treatment. Over the years, the project has evolved into “Integral, Cooperativa de Salut”, a non-profit worker cooperative.
It is an initiative aimed at improving health (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual), offering services with a holistic perspective, placing people at the centre and fostering their self-awareness, autonomy, empowerment and a more conscious and responsible approach to their own health and that of their environment. We aim for each consultation to generate a qualitative shift in people’s lives, and for the project to play an active role in building a healthier and more sustainable society.
How many people are part of the project?
We are 3 worker-members (Rosa Chacón, systemic family therapist; Aurea Gómez, manual therapist; and myself, Esmeralda Imaz, responsible for Management), 1 supporting member (Pedro Ródenas, naturopathic doctor and founder of Integral, Medical and Health Centre), 2 employees, and 22 collaborating professionals with the following profiles: osteopaths, physiotherapists, acupuncturists, medical doctors, nurses, a psychoneuroimmunologist, psychologists, psychotherapists, a psycho-nutritionist, manual therapists, an integrative oncologist, a kinesiologist, naturopaths, an optometrist and visual therapist, and art therapists.
What makes you different from other organisations or companies like yours?
Every organisation has its own energy.
Ours is shaped by the combination of our individual uniqueness as people, our professional diversity, and our shared commitment to giving our best to continue evolving as a group.
We are united by a vocational purpose of service, and we work internally to bring awareness to what we offer and ensure it aligns with what we do.
We accompany people through our integrative health services such as naturopathic medicine, psychoneuroimmunology, traditional Chinese medicine–acupuncture, homeopathy, osteopathy, psychology, support for learning processes, systemic family therapy, kinesiology, dietetics and nutrition, optometry and visual therapy, manual therapies, habitat medicine…
We also promote health—both personal and environmental—contributing to individual and social wellbeing through courses, talks, workshops, recreational and educational activities, and health advice published in print and digital formats.
To support people from more vulnerable groups, we present projects with the support of public administrations, such as the Integral Health Project for Caregivers and the Support, Prevention and Awareness Project “Beyond EDs” (Eating Disorders).
We strongly believe in intercooperation within the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), and we belong to Cura Digna, a network of care and health professionals. Together, we have launched an intercooperation project at Bloc4, one of the largest cooperative hubs in Europe, with the aim of shaping a strategic centre for care and integral health within the SSE, developing new services and markets, producing diagnoses and innovatively addressing social challenges related to care and support, while strengthening our primary projects.
How do you see yourselves in the future?
We would like to become the health reference point for all individuals aligned with SSE values (mutual support, autonomy, democracy, solidarity, responsible and local consumption, ecofeminism, ecology…) in a way that remains sustainable for both the organisation and its members.
We are in a complex moment, as the economic crisis and rising cost of living mean that many people in Barcelona cannot access our integrative health services. This makes the project dependent on financial support to remain viable and to keep our services accessible to the entire community.
What support have you received from Seira Impuls Cooperatiu and what was it used for?
We signed a participatory loan in October 2022, essential for the sustainability of the project. We also received guidance for drafting our Internal Rules and Regulations (RRI), which we are still working on, and for managing grant reporting.
We are very grateful for Seira’s support, their flexibility, empathy and the humane approach of their team.
