Aim: To improve the quality of life for elderly and disabled people by ensuring availability and accessibility of professional social and primary health care services in Moldova.

 

• 2130 social workers (1900 from 42 departments of social assistance, 200 from asylums for the elderly and/or disabled people and 30 from NGOs providing social home care services)
• 210 social assistants and 84 managers from 42 departments of social assistance
• 100 medical workers
• 1720 family members of patients
• 1150 recipients of home care services (800 from Chisinau, 350 from Horesti and satellite villages)
• 120 volunteers from Horesti and Chisinau
• 28 representatives of NGOs 
• 25 state stakeholders from Horesti and satellite villages
• 80 representatives of civil society

Country / region: Horesti and Chisinau (Falesti Rayon) / Moldova

 

Description of project: For many years, Moldova has been struggling with the long term issue of the departure of its working population abroad. This has meant that the Moldovan population now largely consists of old and sick people who often have no one left to care for them.

In response to this, Caritas Czech Republic, in cooperation with the Moldovan HomeCare Association, has been involved in the provision of health and social home care services. This cooperation has led to the establishment of home care centers and education of professionals in the field of health and social home care services. Centers of home care services have been built in the South, the center and the North of Moldova so far. In the western region of the country however, where a large number of old people live, home care services are unfortunately still unavailable. In light of this, Caritas CR aims to launch home care service centers in the Western part of Moldova and also a program of education for Moldovan social workers.

 

Social workers, social assistants, leaders of social assistance departments, NGO workers, volunteers and family members of patients will attend specialized training sessions. Here they will learn about the legal framework of home care social services, the responsibilities of social workers who provide home care services, the methods and the techniques of providing home care services. They will also learn about patient documentation, time sheets and patient questionnaires which are used to monitor social services. Special training modules have been created for this, particularly with respect to the type of audience. An official guide for the future development of knowledge and skills in the field of home care in Moldova will also be printed.

 

In 2014, Caritas set up a new day center providing medical and social services for 650 clients in the municipalities of Horesti, Unteni, Taxobeni, Hrubna Noua, Vranesti and Lucaceni. Caritas CR also supports the ongoing work of Day Centre Estera in Chisinau which takes care of 800 patients. The Estera center is responsible for the re-training of existing health workers.

 

In June 2014, HomeCare Association launched a dialogue between NGOs working in home care and representatives of government authorities. Each organization promoted the development of a legal framework with a focus on social services and have since created a catalog of home care services. This catalog provides all the essential information for service users and organizations interested in providing home care services. The catalog contains the legal framework specific to home care, examples/forms used in the area and a list of providers of home care services.

 

The current project follows and expands upon the current activities of Caritas CR in delivering home care services in Moldova, such as Home care in Moldova or Home care in the North of Moldova.

 

Total budget: 500 561 EUR

 

Donor: Czech Development Agency