SOCIAL SERVICES AND HOME CARE

Social helpers of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society provide home care for lonely or conditionally lonely older adults who need outside help.

The Ukrainian Red Cross Society has been providing home care services since 1961, when it established a patronage service offering free care for lonely, unemployable older people. Until 2017, the activities of the patronage service received state funding. Since 2017, a new conceptual approach to home care services has been introduced. With the support of Red Cross partner organizations, this project continued to operate only in Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts and later expanded to several other regions of Ukraine.

Since the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, all available resources have been mobilized to scale up home care activities and assist more people in need. About a thousand social helpers throughout Ukraine currently provide aid and support to over 4,500 wards.

Social helpers take care of the household chores (cleaning the house, cooking, changing bed linen), solving social matters (accompanying them to the doctor; purchasing and delivering food, water, and other essential goods; helping to pay utility bills; going for a walk together, etc.), providing hygiene services, and most importantly, communicating and emotionally supporting their wards, which is of extreme importance for lonely older adults in such a difficult time.

The support is offered according to the available resources of the regional organizations of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society and the potential beneficiary’s match with the target groups of the project.