By Bojana Milovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade -- 13/08/12
Several countries in Southeast Europe lack social services to serve people with disabilities. [Reuters]
Meeting the needs of people with disabilities is still a challenge in Southeast Europe. While some countries achieved much in respecting the rights and equal opportunities of the disabled, others still fall short.
Serbia has underdeveloped social services and support for disabled people and those with special needs, according to NGO representatives and parents of the handicapped. They point out late diagnostics and an insufficient desire to relocate disabled people from wards and institutions as the key problems.
Another problem, they said, is legal regulations that are passed but not implemented.
"In Serbia, a large number of institutions accommodating disabled persons is a result of lack of political will to close them down, and have people residing in them start living active and involved lives," said Zoltan Mihok, executive director of the Centre for Society Orientation. "I find it hard to believe that, nowadays, there are institutions with some 900 disabled, who live enclosed as if in a prison."
He added that local government officials "are generally not well acquainted with, or interested in, a systemic solution to the problem of disability, and not prepared for the deinstitutionalisation process."
According to Mihok, problems are best solved within the state-local government-EU triangle.
"The EU is ready to invest and give access to its funds, but programmes must be well-designed and planned several years in advance," Mihok said.
He also pointed out that local level services should provide support for independent living, transport, day care centres, preschool, rehabilitation and other services.
Mihok adds that the rights and living conditions of the disabled is highly ranked on the EU agenda.
"In Timisoara, Romania, an hour and a half hour drive from Belgrade, all disabled persons living in institutions were relocated. One foundation has provided space for support services for persons with intellectual disability. They built and launched the entire set up with EU funds," said Mihok.
He said that although Turkey has the funds, it lacks experts who can work with disabled persons. Croatia has a well-developed programme for the disabled to live independently, with support.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, for administrative reasons, disabled people and those with special needs have different treatment and conditions in different cantons, which is why they and their families transfer from one canton to another to receive a higher compensation.
Vesna Petrovic, president of the Serbian Association for Assistance to Persons with Autism, pointed out the lack of understanding and animosity between local governments and parents' associations.
"The state and local governments should accept that the parents are partnering with them, and most problems will be solved when officials start listening to the parents and their needs," Petrovic said.
Serbia needs a house to temporarily accommodate persons with autism, when their parents are unable to take care of them.
"A mother broke her hip and now we have a problem of where to house her child," said Petrovic.
She is upset with the state, as parents feel helpless in such situations. "It's as if that's only the parents' problem, the state doesn't seem to care at all. It's not rare that a parent comes and says 'I feel all alone, there's no one to help me'," said Petrovic, a mother of 33-year-old Veljko, born with autism. She said the family is the best environment for the progress of autistic persons.
"Such a family lives differently, with a lot of stress and numerous emergency situations. Because of all that, the parents of these children fall ill more often and more quickly than the rest of the population, because they're under constant pressure," Petrovic said.
Even those who are not directly affected by the problem are aware of the difficulties facing disabled people.
"I know a mother, a neighbour, who has a paralyzed son and her biggest fear is what will happen to him if something happens to her, who will take care of him," said Milutin Trajkovic, 69, a Belgrade pensioner.
Source: SETimes.com
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