Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
In Ukraine, there are currently only 80 providers of supported living at state expense.
They provide supported living for about 400 people. Yet the need for such assistance among Ukrainians is significantly higher.
This was stated by Social Policy Minister Denys Ulyutin in the project “Our Dignities.”
The service of supported living is a place where people who need daily assistance from others can live.
The premises must be barrier-free, one person should live in one room; if the person wishes, two can live there. But no more than 35 people on one floor, the minister explains.
“In supported living, a person has their own space. They have their own room. It is not closed off among a few people in a room [as in classical geriatric centers]. The person can freely go outside. They have their own interests. I’ve seen people there growing flowers, playing board games with friends. They simply live. Social workers accompany them. If necessary, they go to the store, to the post office.”
Currently, this service of supported living is piloted for disabled—and temporarily displaced—Ukrainians who are mobility-impaired. These are people who lost all their property on the territory that is now occupied or where active hostilities are taking place.
The service of supported living, the minister says, is “very necessary” for many more people. In particular, for older people, for people with disabilities who need care. This includes veterans and veteran women who need such assistance.
“The real need is very large. It is hard to quantify. The circle of people who will need such a service in the future is very large. Veterans and veteran women, service members, are active drivers of change. Supported living will, at a certain stage, lead us to add new categories to the framework of our policy,” the minister adds. That is, including veterans and veteran women, defenders who need supported living, will be the next step.
Why only 400 people currently have this service in the country? Because it is costly to implement, the minister adds: “The social sphere is not expenditures but an investment. If we speak of it as an investment, it should someday pay off. It isn’t treated as an investment by business yet, so it is provided by our humanitarian partners. They create the conditions; we pay on the principle that “money follows the person.” The service is piloted for only 2,5 years; we went from zero to 80.”
To close the state’s need—the figure is currently unknown—there must be enough people ready to organize such supported living and receive payment from state funds: “The state can transfer funds for the provided service. There is a budget. A provider must be nurtured. And we are doing this within the project financed by the British government, through UNICEF – these are small grants for introducing service providers in communities,” the minister added.
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