On the work of the municipal social service of the municipality of Rezekne in five months of 2014

In 2014, 551 080 euros were spent on social aid benefits in the Rēzekne municipality.
The status of a poor person/family has been assessed and determined for 4990 persons. In order to ensure the basic needs of the poor, the highest funds are spent – eur 529 575 (GMI allowance, flat allowance, funeral allowance, allowance for rent and social payments in social housing). From all the funds spent in the allowance, 71% was transferred to the benefit of the guaranteed minimum income (GMI) level, which is one of the defined benefits, which is mandatory in the social service and social assistance law. THE beneficiaries OF THE GMI benefit were 2698 persons.
The costs of the apartment benefit amounted TO 14% of the total amount paid and the number of beneficiaries was 2580 persons.
The Service shall also provide assistance to children who have reached the age of majority for orphans or children remaining without parental care after the end of extra-family care. The monthly allowance for orphans who have successfully trained in general educational institutions, professional technical secondary schools and higher education institutions has been paid to 49 persons.
In order to ensure the family environment of children who remain without parental care or children, the Service shall utilise 15 foster family services. In foster families there are 26 children of the municipality, whose biological families have found unsuitable conditions for the development of the child. The foster family was paid monthly allowance for the maintenance of the foster child and the purchase of clothing, as well as one-off allowance, placing a child in a foster family.
In the first five months of the year, the benefit of the neonatal care has been received by 117 families of our municipality.
In the social service, regular work is carried out with high-risk families in which parents do not take care and leave their children neglected. The basic needs of the child, emotional support, lack of social skills among family members are not provided in these families. Social workers are working to ensure that parents are responsible for their children's education, growth and development so that children are made a full-fledged personality, to receive their parents' love, care and attention, to be motivated to learn, to spend their free time on a creative basis. Working with risk families on a day-to-day basis, social workers carry out a thorough, sensitive and professional social correction work by developing a personal family/personal recovery programme for each family, drawing up social rehabilitation plans and concluding cooperation agreements. It is a long-lasting social work that does not always result in positive results. More often, these are minor success and positive changes.
Social rehabilitation services are regularly provided: psychologist services. They can be obtained at the place of residence.
In addition to the cost of benefits, the social service pays services to long-term social care institutions (Sherjan old people's homeland, Vilnius SAC social beds, Maltese SAC, Dagda SAC, Rezekne City SAC).
The Service has also offered the opportunity to enter a line for the receipt of various national social rehabilitation services. 18 residents of the municipality have utilised social rehabilitation services for State budget resources. 29 persons with functional disorders have been admitted to the service.
In cases where a person's condition permits residence at his place of residence, the service shall provide a care home service. Carers' services were provided to 95 pensioners and persons with disabilities. In the care home, the allowance is paid to 89 pensioners.
The social service of the municipality of Rezekne shall also provide the assistant service to the residents of the municipality. Currently, 75 persons are provided with an assistant service.
39 social workers and psychologists work in the municipal social service of Rezekne. Social workers have higher education in social work. In order to improve their professionalism, the social service manager and social workers attended seminars, conferences and courses on various topics, such as work with individual social cases: methods and techniques, psychosocial work with less family, behavioural social adjustments and the development and implementation of social assistance programmes in local government. All social workers and psychologists participate in supervisions. The experience of other Latvian provincial social services has also been acquired: in the exchange of experience, professionals have been in Dobeles District, Tukums District, Balvi, Jelgava municipality, Roja municipality. The exchange of experience to Norway was very valuable. Social workers had the opportunity to meet the specificities of social work, social care and social rehabilitation in Norway, visit institutions, communicate with colleagues.
Social service specialists participate in the meetings of representatives of various institutions (Education Administration of Rezekne, District Courts, Social Service, State Probation Service, representatives of the State Rēzekne District Police, children's law protection specialists), which aim to build a model of inter-institutional cooperation in order to address the social problems affecting children in a qualitative manner.
 
 
Silvija Strankale
Rēzekne District Head of Social Service