Zašová (Zlín Region) – A new life awaits clients of institutions participating in the social services transformation project. They will live in small households and will not have to adapt to the operation of a large institution. This also applies to 111 people from the facility in Zašová near Valašské Meziříčí.
"Our home was selected mainly because its layout and capacity do not meet today's requirements," explains the head nurse of the Zašová home, Jana Zetková. "The home's clients will live in better conditions, use regular services, and in the new environment will be able to develop their independence and individuality."
The home will undergo an extensive transformation, during which it will be replaced by more suitable services providing people with disabilities better living conditions and individual support. "The transformation will take place over several years. By June 2015, all clients will leave the current facility," Jana Zetková describes the planned changes. People requiring a lower level of support will move to sheltered housing. Individual households will have a maximum of six members with bedrooms with one or two beds.
"I have been in the home for a very long time, since 2002," describes the length of his stay one of the men affected by the changes. "I enjoy participating in the workshop activities. I would like to go to town more often by myself, because I like shopping. I would also like to travel home to Karviná to visit my family. And I would also like some personal space where I could be alone. I would most like to go home to my brother. If that is not possible, I would like to live with friends, they help me."
Another of the men living in the institution in Zašová says: "I have been here for twenty-six years. There are interesting activities here, such as ceramics and woven baskets. I also enjoy playing with the dog."
In the coming years, this man will be moving to sheltered housing. "I am glad that I will be living in a little house," he says, describing how he is preparing for the transition to the new environment: "I cook soup, I try to make dough, and I am learning other kitchen and household tasks. A different life awaits me than here in the institution, I will have to save money for food and bills. I would like there to be a garden, I like growing flowers." At the same time, he wants to live with a friend: "He asked me and I agreed. We both have some experience and we will manage together."
*The National Centre for the Support of Social Services Transformation provides coordination, methodological guidance and education for workers who are transforming residential social care services towards a community-based model of provision and a greater degree of social inclusion and independence for clients. The National Centre is part of the Support for the Transformation of Social Services project, whose aim is to support and pilot-test the transformation of social care services based on individually determined user needs: to enable their active participation in the labour market and society, and to contribute to the deinstitutionalisation of residential social service facilities in the Czech Republic. The project, implemented by the Department of Social Services and Social Inclusion of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic, is funded from the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic through the Operational Programme Human Resources and Employment. The National Centre for the Support of Social Services Transformation is operated under a contract from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs by 3P Consulting, s. r. o. More information at http://www.trass.cz .