Disabled Welfare Centre

Parnu has developed a strong network of supportive services that help gain dignified and long-term social coping for the disabled. The Disabled Welfare Centre, run by Parnu Town Government, is the organization that provides various supportive services for people with different kind of disability.

A Day-care centre for mentally retarded youngsters have been operated since 1996. It provides educating and training programs - how to manage with money or how to act in shops, banks, how to take care of oneself, etc. All those daily chores that are usual for us need to be taught and reminded to the day-care center clients every day to help them manage independently. Many of those clients are young persons who cannot work because of their disability. For that reason they must spend lot of time at home separated from society. The centre gives them an opportunity to get outside. They learn how to work with computers or use the Internet. Cooking and handicraft lessons are also popular with them. But first of all, the possibility to communicate with other persons having similar problems and lifestyle matters the most.

Three years ago the city commenced establishing the work centre for mentally retarded as well as for persons with moving disability. Today the centre is enchanting our clients with the possibility of doing something with their own hands: chairs and car models, Christmas decorations and picture frames.

When the day-care center and work centre clients live usually with their parents or relatives then five clients with psychiatric disorder live all by themselves in the town apartments. Only a couple of years ago that kind of rehabilitation seemed unbelievable but one and a half year experience has showed that our fears were futile. A lot of work has been done to find jobs for the disabled persons. Regardless of the state subsidy to employers, it is very hard to find enterprises or organizations willing to hire a disabled person. Integrating the disabled and giving them equal possibilities are not new ideas for our society. In fact, it is a long process and we are happy to know that a long step have been taken in Parnu to transform ideas into reality.