Moldovan government intends to adapt determining disability system to requirements of people with special needs

Chisinau, 20 January /MOLDPRES/ – The concept of reforming the system of determining disability was examined today at a working meeting at Government, chaired by Prime Minister Pavel Filip, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.

According to representatives of the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family, the project was developed based on the survey conducted by the United Nations Development Programme and it is aimed at meeting the needs of people with special needs and adjusting the system to international standards.

The current system of determining disability is obsolete and cumbersome, with a one-sided examination of cases without electronic database of beneficiaries. Similarly, the local centres of establishing disability do not correspond to the minimum requirements: lack of access ramps for people with special needs or wheelchairs. There are no medical experts in determining disability.

In order to change the existing situation, it is required a reform of the foundation of the system, through the implementation of bio-psycho-social model, to ensure adequate service to people with special needs, their specialized consult and, not in the last turn, to provide people with disabilities the possibility to integrate into society and to benefit from social inclusion programs.

Prime Minister Pavel Filip pointed out that so that to establish order in this area and to develop policies for its development needed an urgent mode to implement an Automated data on people who had degree of disability. This electronic platform will contain data about the number of people with special needs, their integration into social life, but will offer them the possibility of on-line programming.

"We need original data to initiate something. Without this clarity, there can not be identified solutions. We must know what we have, which are internal developing resources and where is the greatest need for intervention of the state," said Prime Minister Pavel Filip.

The prime minister asked the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family to speed up the finalization of the Concept of reforming the system of determining disability and to develop an action plan on steps to implement it, so that in March this document to be proposed to the Government.

(Editor A. Raileanu)