06/03/2015
According to the country's Ministry of Labour, in 2014 a total of 183,416 Moldovan citizens with disabilities (around 5% of the total population) suffered from discrimination, social exclusion, poverty, unemployment and poor access to public services
Start up a unit to provide vocational rehabilitation services to persons with disabilitiesUnidad de servicios de rehabilitación profesional para personas con discapacidad.Start up a unit to provide vocational rehabilitation services to persons with disabilitiesStart up a unit to provide vocational rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities
On this occasion, the SOCIEUX programme, theEuropean Union Service for Social Protection in Development Cooperation, in which the FIIAPPcollaborates, is working with the Moldovan Ministry of Labour to start up a unit to provide vocational rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities.
In February, the programme experts were able toreview the current challenges and assess the needs to be considered in opening this unit.
The objective of the action is to help generatebetter knowledge of the type of services neededand how to guarantee provision of high quality services in accordance with current regulations. SOCIEUX, in collaboration with the Ministry, has implemented a specific action plan.
The assessment carried out by SOCIEUX reviewed the current status of the vocational rehabilitation unit and analyzed the resources needed to get it up and running in coming months, in addition to presenting specific recommendations.
In the opinion of the experts from Ireland and Lithuania, some of the difficulties found in the unit were due in part to an excessively medicalized approach to disability and, also, to the deficient attention given to locomotor disabilities. This perspective neglects the true meaning of vocational rehabilitation: a process in which persons with functional, psychological, developmental, cognitive and emotional disabilities or health problems can overcome barriers preventing their access to the job market, as well as to remaining in or returning to it.
Therefore, a key recommendation would be to adopt a more comprehensive social and human rights approach that would include all types of disability, and to not focus exclusively on vocational rehabilitation but also on vocational training and employment support.
Another recommendation made to the Ministry of Labour was to develop a comprehensive national policy on disability that includes an implementation strategy and strengthening of collaboration relationships with NGOs.
Currently the Moldovan Ministry of Labour is immersed in a process of starting up a services unit in the Prosthetics, Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation Centre (CREPOR), conceived of primarily for persons with serious disabilities.
