On 2 May, at the initiative of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine and with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation, a strategic session on “Building Capacity to Support Older People and People with Disabilities: Challenges and Opportunities” was held in Kyiv.
The experts who took part in the event formed a vision of how the transformation from institutions to living at home, with the necessary social and medical services, as well as with the involvement of older people and people with disabilities in the economic and social sphere, should move forward.
Uliana Tokareva, Deputy Minister of Social Policy, said: “Russia’s full-scale invasion has demonstrated that Ukrainians do not accept the fact that people are forced to stay in institutions. In addition, the Ukrainian people are committed to the European course they have chosen, and deinstitutionalisation reform is an important condition for European integration. Instead, the war only increases the threat that more people may end up in institutions.
“As a Ministry, we are conducting two other important processes in parallel – the development of a strategy for the development of social services and the development of an active longevity strategy. Deinstitutionalisation and these two strategies are very interconnected processes, but they are different parts of the same whole. I hope that over the next few months we will develop a document called the Deinstitutionalisation Strategy, which will allow us to plan similar policies on the ground and will serve as a guide for many stakeholders,” she said.
The strategy will be prepared in several stages. After the first, expert discussion on the formation of the vision, there will be broader consultations and meetings of working groups that will work on the document.
Currently, a pilot project on assisted living is being implemented in Lviv and Kyiv regions and in Kyiv.
In Lviv region, the service is provided by: 3 assisted living homes for 22 people with mental disabilities (including 11 people who lived in neuropsychiatric institutions); 1 assisted living apartment for 4 people.
In Kyiv region, there is 1 supported living home for 8 people, and another one is being prepared for opening for 10 people; in Kyiv, there are 2 transit/study apartments for 6 people (the course of study is from 1.5 months to 6 months).
In addition, in 2024, Chernivtsi and Chernihiv oblasts will be involved in the pilot project, where it is planned to create supported living houses/apartments with the assistance of UNDP in Ukraine.
