January 18, 2023
News
For several years, Caritas Czech Republic has been focusing on improving the availability and quality of home care services for elderly people in Moldova. From 2019 to date, Caritas Czech Republic, in cooperation with the Homecare organization, has been working on an ambitious project and has opened two new health and social care centres and is cooperating with local authorities and external partners to introduce a new profession in Moldova - home caregiver.
Achievements in the field of home care
Initiated in 2019, the project that aimed to increase the quality and availability of home care services offered to the elderly has successfully come to an end. The achievements of the initiative were presented at a closing event held on 16 December 2022.
What did Caritas Czech Republic achieve within the project:
- Opening of 2 new health and social care centres: in Ocnita and Vulcanesti;
- Approval of the qualification standard for the new profession of home caregiver
- Equipping of 10 existing health and social care centres with medical equipment and supplies
- Development of guidelines, methodologies and standards related to the medico-social home care process
- Approval of the methodology for calculating the cost of home care services.
"The results of this project are a joint effort of all partners providing health and social care services to care-dependent people. It is a project in which non-profit organisations, side by side with state officials, have changed for the better the lives of many elderly people from Moldova,” said Anastasia Vasiliev, Caritas Czech Republic Program Coordinator.
Present at the project's wrap-up event, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Moldova, Mr. Stanislav Kazecky, stressed the importance of development and cooperation projects for Moldova and reiterated the Czech Republic's support for our country.
Ocnita and Vulcanesti regions now have local health and social care centres
A major result of the completed project was the opening of two new health and social care centres: in Ocnita and Vulcanesti. The new centres will increase the geographical coverage of the health and social services and the number of people who can access them. The centres have already served over 2.100 vulnerable persons.
"The model of health and social care, promoted and run by Caritas Czech Republic, should be fully taken up by the public health system of the Republic of Moldova,” said the representative of the Ministry of Health, Tatiana Zatîc, during the project’s wrap-up conference.
The medical-social centres were designed to help people to maintain their functional autonomy and be able to continue their lives in their own homes with dignity and respect.
"Currently these centres are the only way to unburden the medical system, which is failing to cope with the high demand for health and social care in a society where the migration of young people is increasing by the day,” added Anastasia Vasiliev.
A new profession in Moldova: home caregiver
Thanks to the same project, the relevant ministries approved the qualification standard for the new profession of home caregiver and the profession of home caregiver was included in the Classification of Occupations in the Republic of Moldova. The new profession will contribute to the deregulation of the state system of home care services for the elderly and vulnerable. The approved qualification standard will allow accredited institutions to train specialists in this field and to include them in initial and continuing vocational training programs.
"In Moldova, the number of people requiring long-term care at home is constantly increasing. This has increased the need to train specialists who can provide professional medical and social care at home,” explained Mariana Negrean, Senior Specialist in the Nursing Commission.
Overcoming pandemic challenges
As the duration of the project overlapped with the Covid-19 pandemic, the project team had to face many constraints imposed by the pandemic context.
"We had to reorient our activities and planning process. We quickly reassessed the way we carried out the activities so that each member could continue their work safely. We consider it a real success that we managed to complete all planned activities on time and keep our team safe," said Tamara Adașan, Homecare Director.
Vasile Vasiliev, Country Director at Caritas Czech Republic added that the support of partners and concrete actions made it easier to overcome the many challenges encountered during the implementation of this project which overlapped with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Caritas Czech Republic will continue its efforts to make care and health services accessible to elderly and vulnerable people in Moldova and will persist in its intention to increase the geographical coverage of these services as much as possible.
