"Three in One"
The “In-House Care of the Elderly and the Ill” project of the Health Center of Obrenovac has been awarded the Best Practice at the Local Government Level – funds for the continuation of the project ensured by May 2008
The population of Serbia is getting older. More than 15% population is older than 65. Demographists are warning us that we are among top 25 countries as for the share of elderly population. Projections say that the number of the elderly shall increase by a third after 2050.
The age structure of the municipality of Obrenovac is no different than the national average. More than 11,000 citizens of 76,000 are in the „third“ age, according to the Census 2002.
The majority lives in villages, without basic living conditions, deserted by the closest ones. Faced with these problems, and due to the fact that a lot of elderly persons do not have health insurance and that on-the-ground services are overburdened, the Health Center developed the project entitled In-House Care of the Elderly and the Ill.
During the visits of the homes of the elderly, we provide these people with more than just health care and hygiene. We have brought these people back to society. Two mobile teams of a nurse, assistant and hygiene attendant bring medicines, provide therapy, bath, food and change the clothes of the beneficiaries. They maintain the hygiene of the home, help them out of the house after more than ten years, help them walk to the center of the village. To put it simple, we have integrated in-house treatment, gerontology and in-house care – says Specialist of Internal Medicie Dr. Maja Todorovic, Director of the Health Center, implementing institution.
These deserted people are visible again. We have brought them back to society. They are visited by neighbours, relatives. We were surprised by the results of social interaction. When we started, we had in mind primarily to take care of their health and hygiene, says Dr Maja Todorovic, Director of the Health Center.
The project was initiated on December 15, 2006 by funds granted at the Public Works competition of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy. RSD 1,106,077.60 was allocated from the state budget for 12 months. The municipality of Obrenovac allocated RSD 750,000 for the wages of staff. The health center allocated RSD 273,105.72. Excellent results were the motif to find new sources of funds before the first project year expired. Thanks to the National Investment Plan and through the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, funds were provided for the first four months of 2008.
The staff of the Health Center are worried what shall happen after May. They are hoping for a new donor, as are the members of the team. Namely, the six workers were unemployed until the project began. They were engaged through the National Employment Service who took part in the project.
They made 1,800 visits in the course of 12 months, or five to seven visits on a daily basis of one of the 36 patients. The calculation indicates that costs, in comparison to other means of assisting the elderly, are the smallest – only RSD 4,400 per patient per month. Gerontology services of the Gerontological Centar cost RSD 9,000, while the stationary care amounts to RSD 23,792. The private homes charge several hundred euros for a monthly stay.
What cannot be measured by money, as the nurse Ana Tanaskovic says, is the happiness of the elderly who did not have a person cross their threshold in a decade.
The example of Obrenovac shows us how the problem of elderly care may be solved, who are among the poorest population. Furthermore, the engagement of nurses, assistants and hygiene attendants decreases the number of the unemployed. Local government contributed by funds for salaries and by drawing attention of the public to the problems of the elderly neglected population.
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