The conference “The system of social and health services for senior citizens in the city of Kharkiv” was held on March 29 at the Kharkiv City Council, city.kharkov (RU) reported.
Doctors, social workers, representatives of public and charitable organizations, veterans, volunteers, as well as foreign experts from the Netherlands, Germany and Israel attended the conference.
The participants shared their experiences in the provision of social and medical assistance to older people.
“It is very difficult to provide senior citizens for medical services. Their health, social status, living standards require us to develop such health and social technologies that could combine all the necessary range of services that we must provide for these people,” the deputy mayor of Kharkiv on Health and Social Welfare, Svetlana Gorbunova-Ruban, said.
Kharkiv has been dealing with it for more than a year, implementing various pilot projects and, Svetlana believes, have achieved good results in this direction.
As noted during the conference there is a system to assist older people in all stages of their lives. Social workers in this case base on the principle that the more successful social adaptation to today’s realities is, the longer they do not need the services of home care.
For the most difficult cases when terminally ill people need to be ensured adequate care and humane treatment in the last period of their lives, the Kharkiv Department of Palliative Medicine “Hospice” of the city hospital №17 helps them. Last year, the department cared for more than 200 senior citizens.
Gorbunova-Ruban stressed the system of social and health services for older people in Kharkiv will be improved, as a strong foundation was made for it and more organizations are involved in this area.
