The end of the institution in Svojšice: Prague is dealing with a change in social care, clients will be moved to apartments
“We agreed with the leadership of the Alliance for Individualized Support that the activities implemented by the capital city of Prague in the last four years are important from the point of view of people with disabilities to to fulfill their own lives in the same way that others can fully fulfill them, says councilor for social policy and healthcare Milena Johnová (Prague seba). The aim of the municipality is to create the best possible conditions for the disabled.
Handicapped Prague residents in the Sudetenland
“Which of you would want to move into an institution and live there with a hundred other roommates?” Kristýna Mlejnková, executive director of the Alliance for Individualized Support, asks, among other things, at the beginning of her speech. Clients with disabilities do not wish to live in large-capacity institutions, they want to experience the full life of their peers with all its joys and worries.
“We consider the dissolution of large-capacity institutions into small community-type services absolutely crucial to improving the quality of life of people with disabilities,” supplies. The problem of social care in Prague so far has been inappropriate placement of clients. The places that were used for the stay of Prague residents with disabilities were mostly located in remote parts of the country, including border areas. According to Kristýna Mlejnková, from the point of view of the people of Prague, it is necessary to have community services in their territory.
From a lonely castle to homes and apartments
The transformation of the social service is worth mentioning at the Svojšice castle. “The initial state in 2019 was such that one hundred people lived in the complex with an average age of 63 years,” introduced by Martin Kahánek, director of Domov Svojšice. A baroque castle in a small village in the middle of the woods did not offer a very high quality of life. In cooperation with the municipality, work began on the change, employees asked their clients about their preferred places to live. The following year, the first people started moving into the first two commercial buildings in Český Brod.
Due to the unsatisfactory electrical installation of the castle, the organization is moving to Kostelka nad Černými lesy, where a practice household for clients is being created. In June 2021, the castle was completely evacuated, other people moved to Prague or other places in the Czech Republic. Gradually, the municipality provided additional apartments. The properties are currently for sale. “They have been offered for quite some time, but nobody wants them,” says Milena Johnová. And no wonder, no one wants to live “alone by the forest”.
The story of Mr. Stanislav
Stanislav lived in the castle from the beginning of the nineties. He lived in a closed ward most of the time. “Life was very limited. In order for Mr. Stanislav to be able to get fresh air, he had to ask two employees to go outside with him and open the double grating from the closed partition.” describes Martin Kahánek. Before 2019, he lived in a shared household with 23 roommates, wearing sweatpants pulled up to his breasts, which were burnt from cigarettes.
“He spent the day sitting outside the castle by a tall ashtray, waiting for butts to finish smoking,” adds the director. All the new faces that appeared in the castle begged for a cigarette. Due to his financial means, he was short of them. In 2021, Stanislav, together with seven other roommates, moved into the family house as part of community services. He has a room to himself, he shares an apartment unit with two roommates. He goes shopping by himself, knows how to operate an electronic cash register, travels by public transport and prefers to wear a suit.
The future of social services
The community residential service, which Mr. Stanislav joins, offers its clients a better quality of life compared to institutions. The municipality would like to take this route. Until 2019, Prague had more than a thousand beds with operating costs of around 1 billion crowns outside its territory, most often in the Sudetes and other remote locations. According to Milena Johnová, such a location does not correspond to the needs of the people of Prague, nor to the legal obligations of Prague.
However, Prague is currently dealing with a housing crisis. Most of the properties have been privatized, the construction process allows for flexible expansion according to needs, and there is also a lack of construction workers. “If something is holding us back, it’s the lack of labor rather than housing,” states the councilor. Urban apartments or privately owned apartments for rent began to be used in the city.
Currently, the municipality needs to get a billion crowns, which it has in social housing outside of Prague. He wants to transfer the capacities to individual regions and will start developing housing in Prague. Negotiations began with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The city also communicates with potential accommodation capacity providers. In three years, a hundred jobs have been added in various types of services, but there are still around a thousand left.
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