DAILY CARE CENTRES

JÛRMALA

The City Council has decided to establish the Daily Care Centre for mental patients. The individuals with mental deficiency should be in focus of every municipality and democratic society at all. There are about 2500 mental patients in Júrmala.

The attention of the society is not always correct to people who have limited opportunities to study and get education, to care about themselves and be able to walk. Also the opportunity to get job and provide necessary things for existing is at the very minimum.

The goal of the recently established institution of the social care - Daily Care Centre - is to increase independence level for mental clients by providing technical help and developing their professional skills. The expected result is an increase of self-confidence and integration in the society.

The first part of a day is planned for practical lessons-work with computer, wood materials, drawing and other handmade practices. In afternoons there are workshops in ceramics, drawings and music. As the specialists of Daily Care Centre suppose, clients can develop their professional skills in some certain jobs and get qualification which can be used under the management of masters. For example, they can be trained how to cut a grass, make wooden toys and take care about trees in the parks. In the future they could study in Rehabilitation Centre, as it is almost impossible to be on labour market without basic knowledge.

About 50 clients can be located in the Daily Care Centre everyday. The working hours are from 7 a. m. to 7 p. m. Those individuals, who can not get to the Centre and get back home by themselves, will be given help and transported by special buses.

KÄRDLA

The project idea grew for 3 years. On one hand the town with 4200 citizen needed a place for elder people who stay at home and have no opportunities to gather and communicate, on the other - municipality has responsibility to establish such kind of opportunity. By the law of social welfare in Estonia it is assignment of local authority to ensure existence of social services.

For three years it has been a favourable time to elaborate the idea of day-care centre. The Congregation of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church had in good place, in the centre of town, a house that was in very bad condition. Municipal official has good relations to the Congregation already for a long time so they agreed to make a plan to build up the house for benevolence and social welfare. So that was the beginning of the co-operation project: Foundation of a day-care centre for retired and handicapped people.

Objectives of the project are:

• Creation of social life opportunities for handicapped and retired people
• Supporting interest development of handicapped and retired people
• Assistance in integration of handicapped people info society
• Guidance counselling of handicapped and elderly people in managing with their lives, psychological counselling
• Arrangement of cheap lunch for people with very low incomes

Thanks to financial help of Netherlands Cooperating Foundations for Central and Eastern Europe, Diaconie Centre in SchleswigHolstein (Germany), Kärdla Town Government and State of Estonia the day-care centre is open today five days a week. It is possible to gather, to have interesting activities, to meet, to read newspapers and to drink a cup of coffee with good friend.

The day-care centre in Kärdla is a good output of the co-operation between the municipality and a non-profit institution.