24-hour care units for the elderly will open in 2010 in the Horadok and Liozna districts

September 15, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Round-the-clock care facilities for lonely elderly people will be opened in 2010 in the Gorodok and Liozno districts of the Vitebsk region. This was announced by Mikhail Leshchinsky, Chairman of the Committee for Labor, Employment and Social Protection of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, today at a republican seminar in Vitebsk on studying the experience of veteran organizations working with various structures, according to a BELTA correspondent. As Mikhail Leshchinsky noted, this form of assistance to lonely elderly people, veterans and disabled people is in high demand in the region and has proven its effectiveness. In particular, elderly people in need of constant care are more willing to be sent to such institutions when they are created in their small homeland. In addition, this form of work allows for saving state funds and making assistance more accessible, as sometimes a social worker has to travel up to ten kilometers to reach their ward, the head emphasized. Currently, 14 round-the-clock care facilities with 447 beds operate in 27 territorial social service centers of the region. Another one opened the other day in the village of Lintupy, Postavy district, and is already being populated. By the end of this year, a similar facility is planned to be commissioned in the village of Bogdanovo, Senno district. Touching on other forms of assistance to veterans, Mikhail Leshchinsky noted that significant attention is paid to solving social and domestic issues in the region. Thus, since 2004, 372 disabled people and war veterans have received social housing, and 18 people have received it in the first half of this year. Currently, 29 WWII veterans are on the waiting list for housing improvement. The issues of telephone installation in the homes and apartments of people in this category have been fully resolved. A popular form of social service is the provision of social services at home. Currently, it covers 12.5 thousand elderly people, including 805 veterans and family members of the deceased. State targeted social assistance in the amount of Br230.7 million was received by 1.1 thousand lonely pensioners and disabled people in the first half of the year. According to the latest data, over 7 thousand WWII veterans, 760 family members of the deceased, and almost 10.4 thousand former prisoners of Nazi concentration camps live in the region. The republican seminar, dedicated to the issues of interaction between veteran organizations and various public associations, local authorities, and trade unions, is being held in Vitebsk on September 15-16. By familiarizing themselves with the Vitebsk Regional Territorial Center for Social Services for Veterans and Disabled People, the agro-town "Pal'minka" and the "Severny" combine in the Gorodok district, participants of the event are studying advanced forms of work in this area and the possibilities of providing social assistance to veterans. -0-