The public association ‘League of the Strong’ together with its partners presented its findings and vision on how to reduce the number of residential care facilities, preparing the ground for the implementation of deinstitutionalisation reform in Ukraine.
As part of the ‘Deinstitutionalisation is Possible’ (DIP) project, two studies were conducted in collaboration with the Kharkiv Research Institute to find out how ready communities are for supported living services.
“We also learned about the perception of stigmatisation of people living in the residential care system. If we take the overall system as it stands, it consists of residential care homes, services provided by local municipal providers, and non-governmental service providers. When it comes to the residential care system, funding comes mainly from the state budget. Local services are provided from local budgets through municipal institutions. And if we are talking about supported living services, these are currently provided only by international charitable organisations. This shows that, in reality, our infrastructure is not at all ready for a system of deinstitutionalisation,” said Daria Kukurika, executive director of the public association Liga Silnykh (League of the Strong).
According to Iryna Serhiienko, an expert at the International Renaissance Foundation and the Ukrainian Human Rights Initiatives NGO, there are currently no social service providers in 391 communities. This means that some communities are unable to provide the conditions necessary for future deinstitutionalisation.
‘There are some communities that do not have a structural unit that would organise the provision of social services to the community. Therefore, this is where we need to start. There needs to be an organiser, a provider, and not only communal but also private property in order to meet the maximum unmet demand for social services among the residents of those communities,’ she emphasised.
Thanks to the ‘Home’ project, funded by the International Renaissance Foundation, the ‘League of the Strong’ union was able to build an understanding of how to move forward and outlined five steps.
“We have set a goal to reduce the number of boarding schools by 90%, and people living in the boarding school system should return to their communities and live in them. To do this, first of all, we need to create a mechanism for people who want to leave the boarding school system and can already be helped.
The second step is to establish local services.
There are many organisations that provide social services. A lot of research has already been done. We need to summarise the findings and understand the key issues and what needs to be done to ensure that social services are actually provided locally.
The third step is to change the attitude of the community.
The fourth step is prevention. Due to the full-scale invasion, the number of people living in boarding schools is increasing, and one of the options proposed is to remain in the boarding school system. The organisation is convinced that this should not be the case.
The fifth step is planning for the future.
“This means working with the Ministry of Social Policy and European international organisations so that we can work with them to create and implement a strategy for institutionalisation for adults, develop action plans and, after this preparatory strategy, working to develop a strategy that would be effective,‘ explained the executive director of the public association ’League of Strong”.
Source: UKMC
