Current and Planned Projects 2001

Development of Services for Elderly People in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia

In July 2000 RET began this major three year project in the Kuzbass Mining mining region of Siberia. The Russian partner is the Regional Government of Kemerovo Oblast.

Kemerovo Oblast is a region in which considerable social welfare reforms have taken place since 1991. For this reason, RET was chosen by the funder to help the Regional Administrations and Cities of Berezovsky, Novokuznetsk and Kemerovo introduce reforms into the care of elderly people. This project has taken a new approach - it focussed more on a client-centred approach, respecting the rights and needs of the individual and providing community based support and services for elderly people so that they can live more independent lives within their own community.

“The institutional and economic changes of transition have impacted hard upon elderly people. In Kemerovo Oblast 630,000 elderly people receive old age pensions. Their standard of living and their sense of well being has deteriorated markedly. For those living in the community, inflation and delays in payment have depleted the value of pensions. There are several consequences: for example diets deteriorate and the elderly sick present themselves to doctors much later [than is desirable], when symptoms are worse, because of fear that the cost of medicines is beyond their reach.Support from previous institutional sources, such as enterprise and trade unions, has become eroded. The isolated elderly are amongst the most disadvantaged because of their more limited support networks and access to non-cash resources and their resulting greater reliance on cash benefits. …..The current social care system is ill prepared to meet the complex range of needs of the elderly in contemporary Russia.” (DfID – Terms of Reference)

“In 1999, for the ‘UN International Year of the Elderly’, Kemerovo regional authorities identified the following priorities relating to older people:

·             Improved social protection.

·             Improved medical assistance

·             Improving health and fitness through better access to sports and health facilities.

·             Employment of older people

·             Improved psychological assistance

·             Improved access to social and cultural activities.

Many of these aims however tend to be beyond the scope of the local authorities as they are at present constituted. There is therefore the need for new approaches and fort inter-sectoral solution to these problems, involving both public sector institutions working and the growing voluntary sector. The region has begun to develop strategies to tackle some of these issues. Examples which have been designed to benefit elderly people include:-

·             Development of day care centres and a health centre;

·             Improvement of home care services;

·             Development of “Social Shops” for the elderly, providing low cost subsidised food and clothing;

·             Establishment of a Department of Social Rehabilitation for older people…” (RET –Proposal)

There are 6 model centres which have been chosen to be closely involved with the practical work and training. These are day care social services centres, residential homes and daily living apartments. training of managers and carers is an essential part of the project. RET has a highly qualified tean of experts who work across the globe, and who facilitate all training from front-line carers to the specifics of particular management.

So far, we have received many pleasing reports and good results. Efforts have been made to encourage NGOs in the region by way of a competition. There have been two sets of town twinning in social services - Kemerovo and Manchester, Novokuznetsk and Wakefield and even Berezovsky and Meres in northern Spain.

Funded by the Department for International Development

Social Welfare Support for Servicemen, Russia

  RET has been involved in the development of social services for military and ex-army personnel since its inception.Having completed two phases of the project funded by the UK MInistry of Defence, RET received funding for a new phase which began in 2001 with the opening of a new business centre in Ryazan. New programmes for the re-training of ex-servicemen for civilian occupations were formed. Literature has also been produced which is meant to assist ex-servicemen in entering the job market. 

“Stage III also provided skilled post-trauma counselling which the Russians felt was urgently needed in the light of the recent Irkursk tragedy and Checheyna. RET held a weeks training in the UK on the subject of bereavement at SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association)in September 2001. In December 2001 those trained at the UK course went on to train others at a course in Kursk. Finally, in May this year the results were disseminated to many different regions. RET have been extremely pleased with the progress made during this project and we hope to continue this extremely valuable work at some later stage.

Funded by the UK Ministry of Defence

Occupational Therapy: Russia and Kyrgyzstan

“Life is Russia for disabled people continues to be extremely tough and many face severe problems in daily life. For example, there is an almost total absence of any provision for wheelchair access to public buildings, public transport and even to the high-rise blocks of flats in which the majority of disabled people live. Within their own homes, disabled people lack many items of equipment, standard in Western Europe, to make simple household tasks possible. The restrictions on their lives are immense and their plight receives little attention from the state, although several good initiatives do exist at a local level.

The Russian European Trust saw that much could be achieved by introducing the concept of Occupational Therapy (OT) to Russian and showing how disabled people could live productive and independent lives with some support. OT was first introduced to Russia in 1993 with a visit by four British OT experts to Moscow. However, it was not until 1998 that the concept was really accepted as part of a mojor EU TACIS project focussing on vulnerable groups. Social Workers in the regions of Samara and Penza received extensive training on the use of specialised equipment plus learning lifting and handling skills in order to help people with physical disabilities.

TACIS saw the success of this training and in 2001 awarded the Trust with an extension to the project devoted purely to developing OT further. Faculties of OT with well-equipped teaching laboratories were established at the Moscow Institute for Social Technology and Cheboksary Social University to train Russian OT trainers and to develop the skills of specialist care workers. These institutes are now very well regarded throughout Russia and are producing great numbers of qualified Russian rehabilitation workers through short training courses and longer courses of study. In addition the project helped to encourage a factory in the Samara region to manufacture soem basic aids and equipment for disabled people, an idea which is likely to be repeated in the Kemerovo region of Siberia.

In 2001 RET built on previous work in Kyrgyzstan by supporting the establishment of OT by training 40 occupational and supporting the development of regional rehabilitation centre in the country's six regions. The Trust continues to dedicate much of its work towards improving the quality of life of physically disabled people in Russia and Kyrgyzstan by tailoring programmes of activities to what the Russians require and what is practically feasible in Russia.

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