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FAMILY CARERS
IN
SLOVAKIA
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SLOVAK REPUBLIC
FAMILY CARERS IN SLOVAKIA
5 500 000 inhabitans
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Family
carers in
Slovakia:
CLUB OF LARGE
FAMILIES
Large
families 4+
children
Families with
disabled
child
(member)
FAMILY CARERS IN SLOVAKIA
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Partners
Goverment
Parliament
NGO
soup
Actual problems
Family carers
CLUB OF LARGE FAMILIES
FAMILY CARERS IN SLOVAKIA
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Definition of Family carer
A family carer is “ a non-professional person who provides
primary assistance with activities in daily life, either in part
or in whole, towards a dependent person in his / her immediate
circle. This regular care may be provided on a permanent or non
permanent basis and may assume various forms, in particular:
nursing, care, assistance in education and social life, administrative
formalities, co-ordination, permanent vigilance, psychological
support, communication, domestic activities, etc.
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In Slovakia, a term Family carer officialy does not exist
Slovak legislation is using:
• Natural person caring for disabled person (state provides
financial support for caring);
• Nurse (home nurse) doing home services;
• Personal assistent (state provides financial support for
assisting)
Repková, K.: Rodinná starostlivosť na Slovensku ako verejný záujem. IVPR, Bratislava 2007
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Slovak literature is using term Family carer for:
•natural person caring for disabled person;
•this person is 18 – 64 year old (especially accent on productive
age!) ;
•state provides financial support for caring.
Carer is person in relation to a dependent person:
•a family relationship,
•ensures the day, personal and proper care to the extent
necessary for all daily activities or personal assistance
for intimacy personal activities, as movements in acute
diseases.
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FAMILY CARER
Postulate
In Slovakia
COFACE
non-professional person
(without financial support )
non-professional person ??
state provides financial support for caring
18 – 64 year old
YES
relationship to caring person
persons without family relationship;
In special case can be caring person from family
parents, siblings,
children and other
persons
primary assistance with daily life activities
YES
YES
regular care may on a permanent basis,
permanent vigilance,
YES
YES
regular care may on non permanent basis,
permanent vigilance,
NO
YES
nursing, care, psychological support,
Profesional nurse
YES
assistance in education and social life,
administrative formalities,
NO
assistant
YES
co-ordination, communication,
domestic activities
NO
assistant
YES
respite
NO only for caring person with state financial
support for caring 18 – 64 year old
YES
NO only for caring person with state financial
support for caring 18 – 64 year old only for
limitedCARERS
time IN SLOVAKIA
FAMILY
YES
Social insurance, health insurance
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Family carer vesus legislation
Act No 447/2008 Z.z. from 29th October 2008
About cash benefits to compensate severe disability
According to § 22. 4 No. Act no. 447/2008 on the stump. Contributions - cash
allowance for personal assistance cannot be provided if personal
assistance implementing spouse, parents, or the natural person who receives
the child into care, or natural person, the court appointed as guardian, children,
grandchildren, grandparents, siblings, bride, son, father-in-law ....
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Family carer vesus legislation
Act No 447/2008 Z.z. from 29th October 2008
About cash benefits to compensate severe disability
Person who carries out a care service under the Act effective from 1 January 2009 is
required meet the condition of education, either complete secondary
education obtained in the field of study focusing on care or to provide health care, or
attend an accredited course treating at least 220 hours to 31 December 2011.
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Act No 447/2008 Z.z. from 29th October 2008
About cash benefits to compensate severe disability
§ 22
Cash allowance for personal assistance
(10) The rate per hour for personal assistance purposes of calculating the financial
contribution for personal assistance is 1, 39% of the subsistence minimum for one
adult person as provided for by special regulation.
The basic amount of cash contribution to care is € 200 per month, if a person takes
care of one people with severe disabilities.
Basic amount of the cash grant is reduced by 50% of the pension benefit, if a citizen
with a severe disability cherishes individual who is the recipient of such benefits.
The cash contribution shall be reduced by the amount of the pension increase for
immobility.
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Act No 447/2008 Z.z. from 29th October 2008
About cash benefits to compensate severe disability
§ 22
Personal assistants from among family members may be only on terms that the
person is severely handicapped has a high degree of reliance on others (at
least 3650 hours per year), but only in the range of 4 hours a day - 1460
hours per year (assistance in getting up and lying down, personal hygiene,
positioning, dressing and undressing,
administering medicines and acute diseases).
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Act No 447/2008 Z.z. from 29th October 2008
About cash benefits to compensate severe disability
Respite
Personal assitant is entitled to 30 days a year for facilitation services provided by the
municipality.
Employment
Carying is not employment relationship.
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Some Slovakian paradoxes:
•very high unemployment (average over 12%, some regions over 30%);
•Officialy tendency for higher employment for FAMILY CARERS;
•Real FAMILY CARERS are not supported;
•Limited (maximum 12 years) social security for parent FAMILY CARER
provided and paid for by state (§ 15 sect. 1 type, d) a e) in acordance on § 128 sect, 1 type, e) Act No. 461/2003
about social insurance);
•Low capacity of institutions for eldery persons;
•Low salary for personnel in these institutions;
•Institutions are supported from taxes (still support on costs of other
municipal activities);
•Unemployment at home – solution: working abroad;
•In few years catastrophic misery in FAMILY CARERS.
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Official figures indicate the number of
family carers of those who receive the
allowance.
Family carer of the family is excluded
from receiving the allowance, so just
the most numerous group of family
carers is not covered by law and
remains without support.
Family carers have no right to respite,
no social security etc.
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Family carer cares fully without
contribution, without support,
without any rest.
Aware in which
situation are family
carer?
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Grundtvig project showed that:
•Family carers are taken for granted as a
function arising from family relationships
and traditions;
•Family carers identified themself often as
not with the function of family carers;
•Family carers cannot articulate their needs;
•Most Family carers are women.
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Industrialization after II. WW of Slovakia brought migration to the
cities.
In the rural areas there are many old and dependents persons.
Solutions in practice are:
•Since children live in the city, the parent is placed in the eldery
home or other facilities, children should participate in financing
(Family Law);
•Children can take a parent to them self and combine work with care;
•Children can take a parent to them self, and one member leaves
employment and is dedicated to caring;
•Parent remains in the country without proper care.
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Housing construction in the years of communist
industrialization - small apartments designed for one
generation housing max. 4 to 5 persons.
It is a problem to take a parent into the apartment, which
requires a special room.
General lack of housing is reflected by Slovakia with Cyprus
has the largest number of adults per household
(children are living with parents).
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How many Family carers are there really in Slovakia ?
from about 50 000 recipients of financial
contribution, employed are only about 1,100.
Rest is unvisible
Among them, there are no real Family carers caring
for own parents, children, husband, sibling
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Systematically underestimated and uncontrolled situation in
Slovakia led to tremendous pressure on official institutions,
which have function of homes for elderly persons and not
only facilities for terminal stage of life that is difficult to
manage at home.
Waiting time for placement in institution ranges several
months or years.
These facilities have a shortage of workers. They are required
to be educated.
They leave Slovakia – abroad are much better conditions to
exist.
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AUSTRIA
Recomendation to support 24-hour care
(§ 21b of the Federal Law on care benefits)
•Contribution for employing non-autonomous selfemployed carers
• Allowance for two employments at home care is € 800
per month, 12 times a year.
•If there is only one employment relationship, the
amount of the contribution is of € 400 per month.
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A proposal of Club of Large Families
concerning adverse effects of demographic
aging and children’s poverty in families
To
Include work of a parent (mother or father)
who takes care of a child/children in GDP
measurement (open a discussion on
adjustment of the relevant statistical
methodology and prepare prerequisites for
a political decision to adopt
complementary factors).
2007
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OECD SOCIAL, EMPLOYMENT AND
MIGRATION WORKING PAPERS N°.
116
COOKING, CARING AND
VOLUNTEERING: UNPAID WORK
AROUND THE WORLD
Veerle Miranda
www.oecd.org/els/workingpapers
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OECD SOCIAL, EMPLOYMENT AND MIGRATION WORKING
PAPERS N°. 116
Household production constitutes an important aspect of
economic activity and ignoring it may lead to incorrect
inferences about levels and changes in well-being.
The calculations suggest that between one-third and half of
all valuable economic activity in the countries under
consideration is not accounted for in the traditional
measures of well-being, such as GDP per capita.
In all countries, women do more of such work than men,
although to some degree balanced – by an amount varying
across countries – by the fact that they do less market work.
While unpaid work – and especially the gender division of
unpaid work – is to some extent related to a country’s
development level, country cross-sectional data suggest
that demographic factors and public policies tend to
exercise a much larger impact.
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Invisible Work Day
Invisible work, it counts!
In 2010, we just ask you to place
a white sheet of paper on your window.
Club of Large Families has sent more than 1 000 000 e-mails
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FUTURE OF
FAMILY CARERS
Family carers need their own carers;
Municipality needs Family carers;
State needs Family carers;
We need Family carers;
Price is regulated through market, value of
family caring is very high – position of Family
carers shall be real and have true value
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Material and sources used from own and other NGO resources.
Thanks to NGO working with disabled people and volunteers working in
Club of Large Families
Family carers in Slovakia
monitoring of the situation from state wiev point
doc. PhDr. Kvetoslava Repková, CSc.
Institute for Labour and Family Research
(EUROCARERS member)
citation from official source
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THANKS !
Stanislav Trnovec
Club of Large Families
Lichardova 16
81103 Bratislava
Slovak Republic
trnovec@gmail.com
www.kmr.sk
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