The past week has been challenging, full of activism; emotional, rational, tiresome and fulfilling, all at once…just like the previous 9 years. The struggle to meet the criteria for the provision of social services has been going on since the establishment of the DIP. First of all, funds for survival, utilities, lease, recognition… Everyone already knows that we spent 3 years gathering funds for two new sanitary facilities. That was actually the biggest obstacle: such a small task, and such a long way to its realization. All the time, since our establishment, we have been providing social services of half-day stay and psychosocial support to adults with difficulties and those who need support and care, and now our perseverance was given a name: “Friends Daycare Center “, named so after the first program we implemented, one didicated to mentoring, called “Friends Life Skills Laboratory. Our perseverance also received a formal “paper” – a license that we are equal to other social service providers who receive financing for the services they provide in accordance with the law, which is an obligation of the state. Although we were “only” a step away from this formal recognition – only a sanitary facility that the space did not have. Our work is known by those who do the same as us, they like to learn from us, and we from them, doing so within and outside our county, from Zagreb to Istria.
This is what we’ve been waiting for:
Status of provider psychosocial support – DIP
Status of Half-day stay/residence service provider- DIP
It started in 2013, and since then we have gone through all stages of development, from an association that gathered experts who know what they want and how to provide support, to an organization that persists in its vision despite all obstacles; to make the world around us better and to provide opportunities for young people and people who need support and care.
Our driving force was and remains the fight to equalize the rights of people who need support and care, along with our assessment that the path to a “license” is the best way to ensure the rights of the people we work for. Social services of residence and psychosocial support ensure the monitoring and effectiveness of program implementation. Because we live the lives of our families and their children, trying to support everyone, and we pay special attention to the mobilization of the community, knowing that there is no progress without the community. All of you and us together can create a happier and more fulfilling world in which we can all live better and more fulfilling lives.
Thank you to everyone who supported this vision in any way, from parents, our families, more than 600 volunteers during these 9 years, to everyone who supported us and worked with us, to the many companies that recognized our work, to public bodies, such as the Primorsko/goranska County, which has been behind us since our foundation, as well as the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, the City of Rijeka, which recognized what we are doing, but also personal friends and extended families; to everyone who stepped in when needed. Thank you, also, to our partners and colleagues from whom we learned and who were guided by us.
Now we face a new struggle: concluding a contract with the designated Ministry, obtaining the “head fee” for the services we provide. The network of social services has not expanded for almost two decades, and in order to prove that there is a need and that social services are necessary, in order to act and live in accordance with the rights of people with disabilities, without stigmatization and prejudice, discrimination and rejection, we are completing “Alternative report on social service providers and user needs for our County”.
What are social services? We provide social services of a half-day stay and psychosocial support, and we provided them to those people who can have or have a referral for the recognition of social services, as well as to those people who do not have this referral, because they also sometimes need this support.
Social Welfare Act: Types of social services, Article 71.
Social services are: 1. the first social service; 2. comprehensive assessment and planning service, 3. consulting; 4. professional assessment, 5. psychosocial counseling; 6. social mentoring, 7. family mediation, 8. psychosocial treatment for the prevention of violent behavior
Article 72. Social services can be provided over a longer period or temporarily, depending on the needs of the user.
Article 73 (1) Social services are recognized or approved on the basis of a comprehensive and/or specific assessment of user needs, risks and family strengths and local community resources, in accordance with an individual change plan or intervention plan, for the purpose of empowerment and better social inclusion. (2) The provision of paragraph 1 of this article does not apply to the first social service, counseling service provided by an expert worker of the Institute and family mediation service.
Article 74. (1) Social services are primarily recognized or approved for the user as non-institutional services, or the right to non-institutional care is recognized. (2) Exceptionally from paragraph 1 of this article, the right to accommodation as institutional care is recognized in crisis situations, for the purpose of implementing rehabilitation programs, for the purpose of implementing psychosocial treatments, and in other cases from Article 116. points 1, 3, 5 and 6 to 9 of this Act, if it is not possible to provide care to a person in his/her own home, by recognizing the right to non-institutional care and/or providing other non-institutional services. (3) Social services from Article 71, points 1 to 14 of this Act are non-institutional services. (4) Accommodation is a service that is provided as institutional care in a social care home or with other service providers or as non-institutional care in a foster family.
Article 75 (1) Social services from Article 71 of this Act may be provided on the basis of:
(2) Social services from Article 71, points 14 and 15 of this Act are provided on the basis of a decision/ruling
(3) Social services from Article 71, points 4 to 13 of this Act are provided on the basis of a referral, with the exception of the professional assessment service, which can also be provided on the basis of a conclusion.
(4) Social services from Article 71, points 5 to 15 of this Act may also be provided on the basis of a contract between the user and the service provider.
(5) As an exception to paragraph 4 of this article, a child may use the social service referred to in Article 71, points 13 to 15 of this Act only on the basis of a referral or a decision of the Institute.
(6) The user can choose the social service and the provider with whom he concludes a contract on the provision of social services in accordance with the conditions prescribed by this Law.
(7) The user who uses the social service on the basis of the contract referred to in paragraph 4 of this article shall fully bear the costs of the service.
This means that you can get a referral or conclusion and we arrange support/funds for the provision of social services, or you can arrange the provision of social services yourself.
Social services:
From the Social Welfare Act, Article 91.
Psychosocial support is a service that includes professional procedures and other forms of help and support that encourage the development and improvement of the user’s cognitive, functional, communication, speech-language, social or educational skills.
Article 92
(1) The service of psychosocial support can be granted to an individual, a family or a foster parent. (2) The psychosocial support service is provided individually or in a group. (3) The psychosocial support service is provided in the user’s family, foster family, at other service providers who meet the prescribed conditions or in other places according to the user’s needs. (4) The service of psychosocial support can be provided in the presence and with the participation of family members.
Article 93
(1) The service of psychosocial support can be approved for up to one year. (2) As an exception to paragraph 1 of this article, the continuation of psychosocial support may be approved after the expiration of the period referred to in paragraph 1 of this article while the need continues based on expert assessment. (3) The psychosocial support service is provided by the social care home and other service providers from Article 162, points 3 and 4 of this Act.
Article 94
(1) The service of psychosocial support to an individual is approved for the purpose of overcoming difficulties and empowering the individual in connection with difficulties in development, disability, old age, crisis situations, domestic violence, inclusion in the daily life of the community, overcoming treatment experiences, behavioral problems and in other unfavorable circumstances. (2) The psychosocial support service is granted to an individual based on an assessment of risks, strengths and needs in accordance with the individual change plan. (3) Psychosocial support for a child with developmental disabilities and a person with a disability is approved based on the professional assessment of the service provider on the type, duration and frequency of the service, based on which an individual change plan is drawn up. (4) Psychosocial support is provided in the user’s family or foster family for up to five hours a week, and for other service providers up to six hours a week, and a maximum of three hours a day, of which a maximum of four hours individually, and the rest in a group.
Article 95
(1) Psychosocial family support is approved for the purpose of overcoming family difficulties, acquiring parenting skills and empowering the family to function in everyday life. (2) The psychosocial support service is approved for the family when problems and difficulties can only be solved by changes in the family, when the family needs professional help and support in raising and caring for children, in order to acquire knowledge and skills for more successful parenting or everyday care and care, or when working with family members is aimed at improving relationships. (3) The psychosocial support service is granted to the family based on the assessment of risks, strengths and needs in accordance with the individual change plan. (4) Psychosocial support is provided in the family for up to five hours a week, exceptionally for service providers up to six hours a week, and a maximum of two hours a day.
2nd stay – half-day stay Article 104.
(1) A stay/residence is a service that provides organized activities during the day with professional and other help and support, in order to meet the user’s basic and additional life needs that cannot be met in the family.
(2) The residence service is granted to a child with developmental disabilities, a child without adequate parental care, a child with behavioral problems, a person who has been determined to be temporarily unemployable according to the law regulating the professional rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities, a person with a disability, a person elderly, a seriously ill adult and a homeless person who is not housed in a shelter.
(3) Residence service is provided as a service
(4) The half-day stay service and the full day stay service can be approved for one day of the week, several days of the week or during all working days of the week.
Rulebook on minimum conditions for the provision of social services:
https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2014_03_40_712.html
https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2020_05_56_1125.html
https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2021_03_28_607.html
https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2021_12_144_2467.html
Udomljavanjem naših ukrasno-uporabnih predmeta sudjelujete u provedbi naših programa za mlade s teškoćama u razvoju i psihosocijalnom funkcioniranju. Mi ćemo vam zato pokloniti jedan ili više predmeta koje smo sami napravili.
