New methodology of determining disability

The disability degree in Moldova will be established according to a new methodology that, besides the medical factor, will take into account also the social factor. The roadmap for introducing the methodology was presented by the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family and experts of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Moldova on July 21, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vasile Cusca, head of the Labor Ministry’s Division of Policies on the Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities, said the roadmap is a document that devotes special attention to specialty assistance for the professional formation of adults with disabilities and the disabled children’s access to education of a high quality. Ghenadie Cojocaru, UNDP consultant who took part in the working out of the roadmap, said the document changes the medical approach inherited from the Soviet period. ”The person who will come to the relevant institution to have the disability degree determined, will be examined not only from medial viewpoint. There will be also identified the person’s special needs. The social inclusion of this person is the final goal of the new approach,” said the consultant. He also said that the new methodology includes the reformation of the institutional component that deals with the determination of disability. From autumn, the personnel will receive the necessary training and will be involved in the process, besides doctors and social workers. Moldova ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in July 2010. As a result of the ratification, there were adopted a strategy on the social inclusion of persons with disabilities and a plan of action for guaranteeing the rights of these persons. Currently, in Moldova there are over 170,000 persons with disabilities, 15,000 of whom children.