Tag: elderly

  • New ministers in Romania’s government

    New ministers in Romania’s government

    Nominated early this week by the main partner in the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party, to take over the ministries for family and labour, respectively, the Deputies Natalia Intotero and Simona Bucura-Oprescu were sworn in on Wednesday afternoon.



    The seats had been vacant since last week, when Gabriela Firea and Marius Budăi resigned following a scandal concerning grave irregularities in several care homes for the elderly and the disabled.



    More than 2,000 such centres were checked by the authorities in the aftermath of the scandal, and several of these, mostly in Bucharest, were closed down. In scores of other similar institutions, operations have been discontinued and fines totalling some EUR 2 mln have been issued. Criminal investigations have also been initiated, concerning economic offences or crimes against persons, and two inspectors with the Ilfov County Agency for Social Inspection and Payments have been detained for having failed to properly assess the situation in a care centre for people with disabilities.



    And, after talks with PM Marcel Ciolacu, the two relevant ministers also resigned. Ciolacu said at the time that mayors, county council presidents, chiefs of local institutions and police chiefs having connections with the institutions subject to the investigation must also take political responsibility.



    Similarly, the Social Democratic Partys spokesman Lucian Romaşcanu said other officials should step down following the inspections conducted in the care centres for the elderly. “It only makes sense, at present, to conclude that the responsibility here lies not only with the government, but also with the local authorities. Decisions will certainly be made at Cabinet level, but the culprits at political and administrative level should also take a step back. It is a matter of political dignity,” the Social Democratic official argued.



    For the time being, the new ministers have taken over their posts. Simona Bucura-Oprescu, 43, currently at her 3rd term in office in the Chamber of Deputies with support from the Social Democrats, is the new minister of labour and social solidarity. In a social media post on Monday, she said the law on special pensions, the pensions law and the salary law are the priorities of her ministerial term, with a view to completing the reforms undertaken under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.



    The new minister for family, youth and equal opportunities, Natalia Intotero, is 47 and is also at her 3rd term in office as an MP. (AMP)

  • Human, too human…

    Human, too human…


    They are a real treasure, for some…but for other
    people, they are a real burden! A lot
    of Romania’ s elderly is abandoned both by their families and society. To their
    despondency and loneliness, their worrying condition is being added. In most of
    the cases, their feeble condition marks their old age. Some of them need
    medical care at home, but their very modest incomes turn specialized medical
    into something beyond reach. For
    the elderly, who become less visible by the day, dignity is something that
    needs to be restored. That is exactly what the White-Yellow Foundation seeks to
    do. So periodically, physicians, trained nurses, social workers, kinesiotherapy
    specialists, psychologists or the sitters working for the Foundation come
    knocking at doors that otherwise remain closed. Măriuca Ivan is the president
    of the White Yellow Cross Romania. For us, she opened up the door of their
    Foundation, which is something she created following a Belgian model.

    Mariuca Ivan:

    The Belgian
    partners came to the country 25 years ago, back in the day I had a job with the
    Healthcare Ministry, they spoke very nicely about the concept of home care. We
    were trying to reshape the entire configuration of the system. In the first
    years after the Revolution, debates evolved around hospital care, much had been
    discussed about the ambulatory later, then the family medicine was also
    tackled…yet there was a morsel missing, from the big Healthcare cake, the home
    care. I did welcome the Belgian partners and I tried to give them my support,
    as much as I could, for the development of that system in Romania. I gave up my
    job at the Healthcare Ministry as I wanted to prove that was possible, despite
    the fact that I did not succeed at the institution! The Cross is a provider of home
    care services, it is accredited and licensed by the Romanian State, so it was
    also us, the White-Yellow Cross, who succeeded to yet again implement, in the national
    legislation, the concept of home care, a category of service which is financed
    via the National Health Insurance Fund.

    The White-Yellow Cross offers a wide range of
    services, such as the administration of medicines, injections, perfusions,
    applying a bandage, the measurement of physiological parameters, medical blood
    sampling…to put it briefly, everything related to home care, as a desirable
    alternative to being admitted to hospital…


    Mariuca Ivan:

    And that’s how it all began, for our
    Foundation, by catering for the needs and the expectations of the people who
    live on limited means, financially or socially, and who are unable to look
    after themselves! Most of them were elderly people, with no family and
    childless. As of late, mostly, the situation has been getting worse because of
    migration, since there are parents who were left alone, with nobody to take
    care of them. For that, we tried to identify the social projects, we tried to
    get funding from the central and the local administrations, for the patients
    with social problem, later on we tried to access European funds, but that kind
    of money seems to be on the wane, gradually, the municipalities did not provide
    that much help either and withdrew their funds, so the elderly sort of belonged
    to nobody! That moment, we decided to continue developing paid medical services
    for those who could afford that and who obviously were not social cases and we
    kind of acted like outlaws, we took from those who could afford paying for the
    services we had on offer, and helped the others as well, for whom we did not
    have financing.

    In other words, the White Yellow Cross, despite all
    the hardships, did not abandon anyone, continuing the mission for which it was
    created. For 25 years, since it has been set up, the Cross has been providing
    home medical care services for more than 24 thousand people. Even during the
    pandemic, so with an extra amount of effort, 40 representatives of the White
    Yellow Cross have provided medical assistance for around 700-800 patients.


    Mariuca Ivan:

    Well, it’s been a
    long time since some of them have been with us, they’ve been with us five, six or ten
    years now. They live thanks to our help and
    thanks to the fact that we opened up our doors for them. Actually, we’re the
    only ones doing that, and what we find behind the open doors are sad stories
    that impress us very much. I have just watched a recording with some of my
    assistants speaking about some of our grannies who are no longer among us, we
    knew they had nobody, and right after they were gone, on that very day, three
    nephews popped up, God knows wherefrom. It is so sad such a story repeats, in
    fact they have nobody, but after they are no longer among us, many people turn
    up, who suddenly remembered they had to accompany them on their final journey.


    For the support of the vulnerable elderly, the White
    Yellow cross has developed the so-called Red Button. It is a project that
    crowns the Foundation’s entire work so far. We’re speaking about remote
    assistance, a system which is complementary to the emergency one, enabling the
    elderly to ask for help when most needed. By means of a bracelet, which is very
    similar to a wristwatch, provided with a red panic button and which is
    wirelessly connected to a large-button cell phone, patients can signal an emergency
    pushing that button. The signal is transmitted automatically to a
    round-the-clock Dispatch centre. According to how serious the situation is,
    the dispatcher initiates a medical protocol, indicating the action that needs
    to be taken, that including calling an ambulance.


    For the White Yellow Cross Romania Foundation team,
    led by Măriuca Ivan, putting a lot of life into everything they do, that is
    something crucial.


    With no emotional investment, with no
    soul, with no love, without determination, you cannot possibly offer quality
    services. Instead, as of late, I could feel that, I am even disappointed that
    we deteriorated in the fiber of our being, as humans, I can feel there is no sign
    of goodwill, no empathy for the ailing ones. That is very sad for me, as a
    former pedagogue in that area of training people clad in white dressing gowns. You
    cannot speak about sacrifice, about involvement, if you do that, you’re almost
    rated as obsolete… It is so sad! That is
    exactly why my team is so very special. We’re short of cash, and yet we’re so
    rich! The moment we feel we’re hitting the bottom of the abyss, a good angel
    appears, saving us, helping us, getting us out of there, taking our message for
    us, our vocation and our mission. We do not come to work, as they say, we have
    a mission we carry through every day…The reward we get, that is in our souls, the
    joy and the satisfaction people convey are the driving engine that helps us
    keep going! We are as somebody used to say, the good angel for those who need
    us very, very badly and who do not have anybody to help them.


    According to Pope Francisc, the elderly need to be
    treated with fondness, with gratitude and respect. The elderly people are an
    essential part of society, they are the root and the memory of a nation. They
    are an indispensable treasure, enabling us to look into the future, with hope
    and responsibility.


    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)



  • The government to ease restrictions for Romania’s elderly people

    The government to ease restrictions for Romania’s elderly people


    The
    relaxation after May 15th
    will be a gradual one, Interior Minister Marcel Vela announced on
    Monday while presenting the most recent decisions made by the
    authorities in Bucharest meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
    The new measures are part of a new military ordinance, the tenth so
    far, and are addressing people over 65, who had been allowed to stay
    outdoors only for two hours in order to limit their potential
    exposure to the deadly virus.




    They
    could leave their households for shopping and other activities only
    between 11 and 13 hours, but now, as Marcel Vela explained, the
    elderly will be able to go outside between 11 and 13 hours as well as
    between 19 and 22 hours for the same purposes.


    Marcel
    Vela:
    They may leave households to buy essential goods for the needs of
    their families and pets; they may leave homes for justified reasons,
    to take care of or to accompany a minor or a child, to provide
    assistance to other people, old, sick or handicapped or to attend
    funerals. Short trips are also allowed around the household for
    individual physical activities (with the exclusion of course of
    collective physical activities) and they are also allowed to walk
    their pets.




    Minister
    Vela has also announced the extension until May 15th
    of flight interdiction to and from 13 countries.




    Marcel
    Vela:
    We
    need to extend the interdiction of flights to and from Spain for 14
    days, starting April 28th,
    when the previous interdiction expires. Then we extended flight
    interdiction for Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, the USA, the UK, the
    Netherlands, Turkey and Iran, Italy, France and Germany, until May
    15th.






    The
    latest military ordinance has provisions for the employees of the
    Romanian Post Office, who shall leave correspondence only in the
    mailbox, with the exception of legal documents.


    Compliance
    with present regulations will be leading to a single conclusion -
    normality, Minister Vela has underlined urging people to have
    responsible behavior – I know it was difficult, I know it is still
    difficult, but we all have the same objective: to strengthen
    protection against this enemy, which proved to be a real challenge
    for an entire planet.


    In
    the meantime, the authorities in Bucharest are working on a plan
    aimed at jump-starting Romania’s economy, where private companies
    have an essential role. Although they enjoyed the support of state
    through a series of measures such as guaranteed credits or funds to
    cover the costs of temporary lay-offs, they are still in need of
    support, which involves significant financial resources.



    (translated by bill)