Press Release, 8.10.2020

Yabloko Party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov sent an appeal to Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova with a request to help families raising children with disabilities and young people with disabilities of working age with severe multiple developmental disabilities, due to the difficulties arising against the background of the introduction of coronavirus restrictions.

Rybakov notes that due to the pandemic, a number of Russian regions temporarily stopped provision of social services. Organisations providing social services have stopped full-time reception of visitors for a day-patient form of service, including at day-care departments, and began remote provision of services.

“The conditions in which families with young disabled people find themselves raise serious concerns for the health of both disabled people and their family members. At present, most enterprises and organisations continue to work, parents of young disabled people also work and they have no one to leave a disabled person at home with, but disabled people require constant care. Leaving work will mean the loss of means of existence for many families,” Nikolai Rybakov notes in his address.

The Chairman of the Yabloko party also draws attention of the Vice Prime Minister to the fact that a long stay at home, in the same environment, affects the mental, emotional and physical condition of disabled children and young disabled people. “For most of them, visiting day hospitals is the only opportunity for communication, social and medical rehabilitation,” the head of Yabloko notes.

Rybakov also emphasises that specialised public organisations have already proposed several options for solving this problem. In particular, the following:

– preserve the provision of services for day patients, both by state institutions and NGOs;

– open home assistance programmes for people with disabilities of 18+ years of age in Social Rehabilitation Centres;

– engage volunteers for provision of services at home.

“I ask you to consider, as soon as possible, the possibility of continuing the work on the provision of social services to families with disabled people in a full-time form with the maximum observance of safety measures,” Nikolai Rybakov’s appeal to Tatiana Golikova runs.

The Yabloko chairman also suggested involving NGO representatives with experience in this field in the discussion and planning of such work, including, in particular, the charitable public organisation Precpectives, the Centre for Curative Pedagogics, the Society of Parents of Children with Disabilities with Autism “I and You”, and the Centre for Social Adaptation Mayak.