The social sector is work that is never finished. Care in old age requires respect for the older person. It is usually a sick, suffering, defenseless person who endures injustice. Not everyone, however, is capable and called to let that person’s narrow self emit some radiance. We are glad that most of our staff are moving in this direction.

There is now already a general consensus on where to head in work with people with intellectual disabilities and mental illness in our country. The social service providers in this respect within the Trnavský samosprávny kraj also agree. The traditional model, which privileged nursing care and was only slightly oriented toward clients’ development, is changing for the better thanks to the introduction of quality standards, which in the end is felt by the recipient of social care.

Through various activities and flagship projects we are breaking the isolation of clients from the outside world, mainly clients with more severe disabilities.

The founder of Domova sociálnych služieb pre dospelých Košúty is Trnavský samosprávny kraj. We are based in a village with about 1800 inhabitants. We are four kilometres from Galanta and also from Sládkovičovo. The building itself consists of an old part of a chateau and a new part adapted architecturally. The front part of the chateau was built by Count Gyula Abrahámffy in 1896. In 1953, a social facility was placed here, and it has gone through several reconstructions and additions. Due to the worsening health condition of clients in 2001, the facility was reprofiled into a home for pensioners and a home for adults, and since 2004 it has existed only as Domova sociálnych služieb.

Activation will not restore a sick person’s original health status, however it reduces social isolation, prevents declining functions, and breaks the cycle of the so-called learned helplessness. It would be desirable for occupational therapy to be designed as preparation for clients moving from a protected environment to everyday life. Through the project titled Modernizácia a rekonštrukcia sociálnych služieb, our facility started in 2006 a process of improving service quality, and from the EU structural funds on an accessible ground floor we created therapeutic protected workshops: basketry, weaving, candle making and soap making. It was important to find out which day and time PSS suits, when to carry out the activity, when they rest, and when they have their best performance. Since 2007 we have been keeping a statistical overview of hours worked by gender. The technological process is supervised by professional staff with safety regulations observed. In the same year we trained all employees in the health area in basal stimulation and became a workplace of basal stimulation as the first facility in Slovakia. Retraining was carried out last year and the second advanced level will take place this autumn by the original instructor, Dr. Friedlová, from Czechia. With the goal of equipping employees with new knowledge and practical skills, which they would later apply with our clients, we have already organized three international workshops. The first took place on 5. - 7. 9. 2007 under the title International workshop of therapeutic protected workshops - How to do it?, with the participation of experts from V4 countries. Another milestone was the organization of the 2nd International workshop titled Ekológiou k tvorivosti klientov sociálnych zariadení on 1. - 2. octóbra 2013. The last workshop was one day long, on 20. august 2015.

The integration character has the core programmes dni otvorených dverí, môj najkrajší literárny zážitok, and Košutský hudobný kľúč, which also has an international character. This year the 11th edition will take place, where we expect 250 people. Recipients of social services from the Trnavský samosprávny kraj, Czechia, Poland and Hungary will present their talents in singing, dance and free discipline before family members and students of schools.

In 2016 there was a reprofiling of social service provision, and therefore we established a specialized part of the facility. Since 2002 the founder of our facility has been the Trnavský samosprávny kraj. The current capacity of the facility is 69 persons with 50 staff members. We take part in various projects, and we publish more detailed information about current matters on our website at www.dsskosuty.sk. We use the newest health aids, namely ceiling lifts, which make it easier to handle immobile recipients of social services. Products from the company Spig Zvolen have proven very useful to us. So far, we have them in only three rooms, but we plan to equip the entire inpatient department with these products.

Social work is a field that is never finished; one needs to seek ways to improve and improve the quality of services for those who need it, and we believe in the philosophy that caring for the happiness of others leads us to our own.

Autor: PhDr. Lívia Katona PhD. Autorka pôsobí ako riaditeľka Domova sociálnych služieb Košúty www.dsskosuty.sk