August 10 (BTA) - The construction of a centre in support of disabled adults has begun in Sofia, project team member Vesela Radeva told a BTA-hosted news conference on Tuesday. The news conference preceded the groundbreaking ceremony at 7 Roglets Street.

The project is worth a total of over 1 million leva, including 850,000 leva in European funding and 150,000 leva in national co-funding, all under Operational Programme Human Resources Development.

The project was designed with the aim to avoid the institutional approach as much as possible at the provision of social services for disabled adults. The team that will work with the consumers will include a psychologist, a social worker, a special pedagogue, a speech therapist, a rehabilitator, a kinesitherapist, work and art therapists, social and health assistants, Radeva explained.

For the period of six months during which the project will operate, the service will be accessible to 90 disabled adults, including 30 users of daily and hourly care and 60 recipients of consultative and other supportive services. In addition, 10 of these 90 people will be able to avail themselves of residential services, i.e. spend 14 days and nights at the centre. The capacity of the centre is 30 people and eight people can stay the night at the same time.

The agents implementing the project underscored that the services are intended for people over 18 and their families, not for children. Methodologies for operation of the centre and assessment of the needs are currently in preparation. A plan tailored to the needs of each concrete user will be drawn up on the basis of that assessment./MY/BR
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