Moskovskaya Oblast forms part of the Central Federal Okrug

The total area of the Oblast is 46 thousand square kilometres. The Oblast borders on Smolenskaya, Tulskaya, Ryazanskaya, Vladimirskaya, Kaluzhskaya, Yaroslavskaya, and Tverskaya Oblasts.

The overall number of permanent residents of the Oblast is 6.628 thousand persons, of which 5.340 thousand persons (80,5 per cent) of city dwellers and 1.297 thousands (19,5 per cent) of countryside residents. Density of population amounts to 331 persons per square km. 4.189 thousand Oblast residents (63,2 per cent) are people of active working age, 919.116 people (13,9 per cent) are under working age, whereas 1.520 thousand people (22,9 per cent) are above working age. The average age of the population is 40,9.

The Governor of Moskovskaya Oblast is Mr. Boris Gromov, who was vested with the authorities of head of the Moskovskaya Oblast administration and Chairman of the Government of Moskovskaya Oblast on May 11, 2007.

Rehabilitation and social protection of people with disabilities
Basic information

Over 500 thousand Moskovskaya Oblast residents (7,5 per cent of the overall population) are disabled, of which more than 19.000 are disabled children.

A special Co-ordination Council with the Government of Moskovskaya Oblast co-ordinates joint efforts of central executive authorities of Moskovskaya Oblast, regional division of Social Security Fund, Administration of federal state employment agency of Moskovskaya Oblast, local government, and Oblast-level organizations and institutions active in the field of social support and rehabilitation of people with disabilities. Similar Co-ordination Councils are set up with municipal administrations.

More than 20 legal and normative acts regulating the issues of social support to the disabled have been adopted and put in legal force, including regulations for quota system for establishing employment opportunities for the disabled, provision of unhindered access to public buildings, transport and engineering facilities, social protection and social support, etc.

Comprehensive rehabilitation, promotion of intellectual, physical, occupational and social potential of the disabled, and their consequent professional realisation constitute the basis for social policy of Moskovskaya Oblast concerning people with disabilities. Comprehensive rehabilitation support is provided to the disabled by the specialized institutions for social services under the Ministry of Social Protection of the Community.

A wide network of rehabilitation institutions across Moskovskaya Oblast provides social support to children and adults with disabilities.

Among them is the Moscow Oblast-level Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled, 38 rehabilitation centres for the disabled (including 9 institutions for the rehabilitation of disabled adults, 23 institutions for the rehabilitation of disabled children and 6 institutions for the rehabilitation of people with disabilities of all age groups), 39 residential institutions for elderly and disabled citizens (of which 32 institutions for adults and 7 boarding homes for children), social rehabilitation divisions within the framework of centres of social services for elderly and disabled citizens. Several social rehabilitation centres for young people include divisions specialized in rehabilitation of disabled children. More than 22 thousand people annually receive qualified assistance from rehabilitation centres.

Around 7 thousand people reside in residential institutions equipped with the necessary household, health care and catering facilities. These institutions work to ensure the better living standards of people with partial or total loss of ability to live an independent life.

Institutions strive to improve social and medical assistance, provide psychological counselling, and promote the full realization of intellectual, cultural and creative potential of their patients. Institutions for children provide comprehensive training which is essential for the adaptation of the child to the subsequent adult life in the community.

Social, medical, legal services, as well as catering, housekeeping and recreational services are also provided to the disabled citizens by the centres of social services. Many of them lease household appliances and are equipped with stress relief facilities, repair centres, laundries, hairdresser's, rehabilitation departments and communication phone lines.

Traditional methods of rehabilitation are combined with new forms of social services, such as specialized mobile emergency crews for rural areas, “social taxies”, help lines, days of comprehensive social services, “in-home hospice”, “open letters” and so forth.

A special emphasis is put on occupational therapy, as well as on sports and physical training activities. Circles and clubs of knitting, sewing and modelling are organized on the basis of many centres of social services. Not only these activities stimulate the motor activity of the hands, but also make the participants realize the value of their work, as the produced articles are given to children from social boarding homes or young people doing their military service. Participation in sportive events helps to promote a healthy lifestyle and the process of integration of people with disabilities into the society.

In-home social services remain the most sought-after form of social support. They are aimed at facilitating the life of disabled individuals in their familiar environment, as well as at enhancing their personal and social status and protection of their rights and legal interests. This kind of services rendered to citizens who require help in household chores etc. due to the partial loss of ability to care for themselves are provided by 441 divisions of in-home social services (including 99 specialized divisions of in-home social and medical assistance).

19 enterprises of rehabilitation industry based in Moskovskaya Oblast produce state-of-the-art technical rehabilitation aids, as well as necessary modules and junctions for prosthetic and orthopaedic devices.

Occupational rehabilitation

Occupational rehabilitation of people with disabilities remains the most essential component of comprehensive rehabilitation process. In Moskovskaya Oblast, employment for the disabled is provided by 12 training and production enterprises of the All-Russian Society for the Visually Impaired, Hearing Impaired and the Disabled. About 800 people with disabilities are employed in the production of lighting appliances, electrical appliances, plastic articles, metal working, decorations, sewing etc.

Furthermore, many efforts are made in the field of vocational training for people with disabilities. Vocational boarding school in Sergiev Posad of the Ministry for Social Protection of the Community of Moskovskaya Oblast provides training with the following specializations: PC user (secretary, accountant), tailor of clothing for men, women and children, seamstress, shoe repair. A career guidance department was opened on the basis of the school in October 2000. The department carries out testing and professional diagnostics for 50 school entrants annually. From 1996, more than 600 people with disabilities and health disorders, including disabled children, received training and professional qualification in this vocational boarding school. Almost all students subsequently found employment. Many of them work in divisions of the Pension Fund, in communal agencies of social support, or at the specialized enterprises for the disabled.

Rehabilitation Centre of Sheremetievo holds a driving course for people with disabilities; 12 centres of rehabilitation of the disabled provide courses of social rehabilitation and adaptation for living conditions for wheel chair users. The training is received by more than 100 people annually.

In order to ensure the accessibility of higher education for people with disabilities, a project was launched this year by the Ministry of Social Protection of the Community of Moskovskaya Oblast and the Institute for the Open Education of the Moscow Independent University of Ecology and Political Science. The project is targeted at the promotion of an Oblast-level network of distance education. The training is conducted on the basis of specialized classes equipped with the Internet connection. The classes are set up in five public rehabilitation centres for the disabled within the jurisdiction of the Ministry for Public Institutions. Rehabilitation centres are situated, namely, in Egorievsky, Balashikhinsky, Klinsky and Naro-Fominsky regions. Currently 120 students are receiving the training.

Social Support

Issues related to social protection belong to the jurisdiction of federal public authorities. Yet in addition to that, the administration of Moskovskaya Oblast introduced other measures of social support to disabled citizens which are financed from the Oblast budget. The size of these benefits grows steadily.

Individuals disabled by the Great Patriotic War and participants of the Great Patriotic War recognised disabled of the 1st category by a general disease are entitled to the 50 per cent compensation of household and utility service payments, regardless of the form of housing ownership. These citizens additionally to their pension receive a monthly benefit designed to increase the amount of monthly pension, compensations etc. to 6.000 roubles. Citizens waiting for the installation of home phone or citizens without an access to telephone communications of communal use are provided with mobile phones with a subsequent monthly compensation of 360 roubles for the charges of the mobile phone operator.

Citizens who participated in the war in Afghanistan, in the Chechen Republic, and in the Republic of Dagestan, as well as citizens disabled by the military service, are entitled to monthly compensation benefits of 3.500 roubles. Draught or contracted military servicemen who conferred the status of disabled of the 1st or the 2nd category by injury, wound, contusion, mutilation or disease acquired during the execution of military service, are entitled to the monthly benefit of 2.500 roubles.

Disabled single-parented children receive a monthly aid of 2.000 roubles. Disabled children from poor families receive a monthly benefit of 1.500 roubles.

Children with disabilities and chronic diseases residing in boarding institutions of social support, social rehabilitation centres and shelters for minors of Moskovskaya Oblast, on the basis of therapeutic indications are entitled to free spa and resort treatment. Provision of medicines and medical aids, not included in the lists approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, to children suffering from socially significant and other diseases, is financed from the Oblast budget.

All disabled Moskovskaya Oblast residents are entitled to the free use of communal passenger transport (except taxies and fixed-run taxies) and local shuttle buses within Moscow and Moskovskaya Oblast.

Measures of social support are also established for citizens without a disability status but requiring prosthetic services by therapeutic indications.

12 legal acts and Resolutions of the Government of Moskovskaya Oblast regulating social support of certain categories of citizens of Moskovskaya Oblast were adopted and put in legal force in 2005-2006.

Expected expenditures for social protection of the community, including disabled citizens, in 2007 are estimated to be 26,9 milliard roubles, which is almost twice the respective budget of the year 2005.

The budget of 449.675 thousand roubles was allocated in 2005-2006 for the financing of social support to vulnerable categories of residents of Moskovskaya Oblast.

Social and Cultural Rehabilitation

Issues of social support to the disabled and their cultural and social rehabilitation is one of the top priorities of the Ministry of Social Protection of the Community of Moskovskaya Oblast, which co-operates with numerous relevant NGOs – Moskovskaya Oblast Organizations of the All-Russian Society for the Disabled, All-Russian Society for the Visually Impaired, All-Russian Society for the Hearing Impaired etc.

Among annual relevant events are regional creative contests for disabled residents of Moskovskaya Oblast, festivities dedicated to memorable dates, motor rallies, arts exhibitions.

In particular, an Oblast-level contest “Best Professional” was conducted in April 2007 among disabled employees of training and production enterprises of All-Russian Society for the Disabled, All-Russian Society for the Visually Impaired, and All-Russian Society for the Hearing Impaired. 65 disabled people employed as seamstresses, curlers, lighting appliance compilers with enterprises of Podolsk, Solnechnogorsk, Kolomna, Noginsk, Dmitrov, Orekhovo-Zuevo etc. took part in the contest.

A sports and athletics meeting and a chess and checkers tournament was conducted from August 25 till September 3, 2006 in co-operation with the non-governmental organizations for the disabled.

 
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