22 employees of daycare and placement centres for the elderly from the Republic of Moldova trained with the support of an EU-funded project

Employees from three daycare centres for elderly people from the districts of Cimișlia, Fălești and Soroca and from the placement centre of Puhăceni village in Anenii Noi district participated in a five-day initial training course for specialists who provide social services for elderly people, organised by Keystone Moldova. The above-mentioned social services are developed and expanded with the support of the project “Civil Society Organisations Act for Better Social Services”.

The participants learned basic notions regarding the legislation and rights of the elderly, the regulatory framework governing the operation of centres for the elderly, the manner of organisation and management of social service, preparation for the accreditation of the service. Also, through group work and exchange of opinions, participants practiced the application of case management, including drawing up individual assistance plans, drawing up and keeping the beneficiaries’ case files, etc.

 “I have been working for 13 years at the multifunctional social assistance centre for the elderly in Glinjeni village of Fălești district, where we are currently developing the social service of daycare centre. Although we already have some experience, I realise that we have not yet had clear procedures to follow when preparing the beneficiary’s case file. During the training, we identified some risk factors that could endanger the life and health of the beneficiary; established the principles of organisation and functioning of a service; practiced how to correctly make an individualised assistance plan, with objectives that determine certain actions; learned how to correctly formulate an objective. We have also been shown another model of collaboration agreement, specifying the objectives, rights and obligations of the beneficiary and the service provider. Upon returning to work, we will certainly modify the agreements we currently have with the beneficiaries, in accordance with case management and minimum quality standards,” said Nina Covaliuc, representative of the public association Modern Village, after the training.22 employees of daycare and placement centres for the elderly from the Republic of Moldova trained with the support of an EU-funded project

Another participant, Ghenadie Pereteatcu, mayor of Baxani Village in Soroca district, is currently developing the social service of daycare centre for the elderly that is to have at least 70 beneficiaries, selected from around 200 elderly people in the village. “We will offer them occupations, cultural and leisure activities, in short, we will motivate them to smile and feel good! We will also give them a hot lunch. First, however, we have to work on preparing the service for initial accreditation. I learned a lot of useful things here. I was most impressed by the formulation of objectives. I realise that I need to systematically participate in training courses,” Ghenadie Pereteatcu said.

In Puhăceni Village of Anenii Noi district, the placement centre for the elderly is in full reform. The institution is being reorganised from asylum to placement centre. “Going through the reform process, the need arose to organize the work differently and learn a lot of new things. Our interest now is for the service to be accredited. We learned what it means, how we need to prepare, what paperwork to do. I came to the training with a part of the team, four people, so we could get training and learn how to work correctly from now on,” said Fiodor Nicoara, the manager of the centre.

Aliona Televca, social worker at the daycare centre in Selemet village of Cimislia district, said that the training gave her clarity regarding the organisation and tasks of her work with beneficiaries. “Sometimes we received a beneficiary’s case file and I was not sure what it should contain and what we should add. At times, I tried to do everything from scratch to fill out the file. But now I understand that the community social worker must bring us a fairly strong base, after which we, at the centre, must carry out other assessments and interventions. For me, training meant clarity. Now I understand the concrete steps I need to take. I want to note that in my store of knowledge that I came with here, everything was mixed up. Now, leaving after five days of training, I can say that it looks like an organiser – everything is in sections, separate and clear. What I liked is that we got involved in each topic and exemplified each step, so we found ourselves in the situations of our colleagues and exchanged opinions. Thus, we know how we will proceed in different situations,” Aliona Televca said.

Initial training for the staff of daycare and placement centres for the elderly is organised by I.P. Keystone Moldova, which is an implementing partner organisation within the EU-funded project “Civil Society Organisations Act for Better Social Services”. Within this project, 40 social services are developed in different localities of the Republic of Moldova.