Municipality of Topola - “Integrative Intersectoral Support to the Elderly in Topola” project
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Municipality of Topola |
PROJECT TITLE: Integrative Intersectoral Support to the Elderly in Topola
VALUE: EUR 111,433
DURATION: 12 months
PARTNER: Health Center “Sveti Đorđe“ Topola
BENEFICIARIES: Elderly population of the Municipality of Topola – 74 beneficiaries, Families of the elderly, and Local providers of social and health care services in the municipality of Topola
The project "Integrative Intersectoral Support for the Elderly in Topola" will contribute to the improvement of local social protection services in Topola, by enhancing daily community services targeting the elderly. The project aims to improve the home care service for the elderly, both in quantity and quality, through the establishment of a sustainable integrative, intersectoral social-health protection service, expanding the scope of the service, and improved capacities of relevant local actors for planning, providing, monitoring, and evaluating local social policies. The action focuses on increasing the quality and quantity of the service, thus preventing deinstitutionalization. The emphasis of the project is on establishing an integrative, inter-sector service, through partnership with the Health Center "Sveti Đorđe" in Topola. Additionally, the project foresees capacity building of local stakeholders and improvement in planning social protection services and policy making.
The Municipality of Topola has 19,134 inhabitants in 30 rural settlements and has so far established and provided two licensed services. Topola faces significant migration of the younger population to cities, leaving most of the elderly living alone in single-member households. They are socially excluded, with various chronic diseases, without family support. Some of them live in poverty or are at high risk of poverty. They need constant support from the local community in accessing everyday services and exercising fundamental human rights.
Given the above, the Municipality of Topola has managed to provide home care service for the elderly population for more than 200 citizens since its implementation. Currently, the service is provided in 4 villages and the city, for 60 beneficiaries. However, the needs are greater, specifically in 3 villages currently not covered by the service (Kloka, Žabare, and Junkovac). In these villages, there are citizens who could not access the service due to the insufficient capacity of the existing service. Also, the service needs to be qualitatively improved, as it currently only includes assistance from caregivers to beneficiaries (maintaining hygiene, preparing small meals, delivering groceries and medications, cleaning, preparing firewood). Nevertheless, a needs analysis indicates that beneficiaries require integrative, multi-sector support, which includes medical, health assistance, and in certain cases, individual psycho-social support.
To address the identified problems mentioned above, the project envisages two main directions of activities: Enhancing the level of service delivery and Building capacities of local stakeholders.
The enhancement of service levels will be reflected in: preparation of service delivery in new villages, introduction of healthcare and individual psychosocial support within the service, provision of integrative services in the planned territory, and external evaluation of the provided integrative service. Based on the undertaken activities, the main expected result will be an increase in the quality and quantity of Home Assistance Service for the elderly in Topola.
Interventions in capacity building of local stakeholders will include: development and adoption of the Local Social Protection Program, capacity building to strengthen the relevant capacities of key local stakeholders and guardians (training for local actors and training for caregivers), and activities to raise awareness. The expected result will be strengthened capacities of local stakeholders for quality planning, delivery, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting on local social services.
Contact person in the project team: Milan Vukićević, project manager (ler@topola.com)