Social conditions of life of persons with mental retardation in Ukraine
This article considers the topical issue of social conditions of people with mental retardation living in Ukraine. Tackling this issue is very important for building a tolerant, humane society and the welfare state. All people with mental retardation need social support and assistance regardless of level of their intellectual capacities, because social adaptation of a person with even the lightest mental retardation is a challenge. It is clear, that the heavier level needs greater amount of assistance. Families which care for these children or adults need assistance. Fortunately, there are certain mechanisms of social assistance to such people in this country: legislative, financial (governmental pensions and benefits), institutional (state residence and care institutions). Unfortunately, they are limited and have some adverse trends at the moment. First of all, not all people with the mental retardation are granted the legal status of disabled people. That’s why some of them are deprived of public assistance. Ukrainian by-laws often conflict with the laws that determine the governmental aid to such people, or simply do not contain mechanisms for implementation of the declared state obligations. It seems that such legislative mechanisms support the unwanted things: promote the transfer of all children and adults with the mental retardation (regardless of their abilities and behaviour) in a large specialized isolated boarding schools, refuse to provide appropriate education for children with severe mental retardation and other trends that considered undesirable for people with the mental retardation by specialists and by international practices. Governmental pension and benefit for family’s care are less than twice subsistence wages, and such families are often incomplete (mother and a child). If such individuals live at state boarding schools, they fall into the category socially excluded and get the syndrome of hospitalism. Also in such institutions the rights of people with high mental retardation are often violated. Their living conditions are improper (there are also some quite serious violations and abuses). Thus at the moment in Ukraine the social conditions of people’s living with mental retardation are quite vulnerable and often severe, especially if such people do not live with their parents, and attend boarding schools. This demonstrates the need for constant monitoring of this problem and the creating of the adequate mechanisms of social protection for this category of population.