The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection has given assurances that, by May 2018, it will develop a plan to improve the quality of life of people with mental health issues.

Minister of Labour and Social Protection, Maksim Topilin, commented that all Russian citizens with such issues should receive appropriate help. He was speaking at a meeting of a working group for the review of basic approaches towards the reform of mental health units.

‘Change is essential in psycho-neurological residential centres, but not only there,’ the minister emphasised. ‘We should address this more broadly and consider the state of residential homes for children. Without this perspective there will be no fundamental change in the system of care for mental health patients, into which children from residential homes are automatically transferred.’

The plan to improve the quality of life of mental health patients will be discussed with the regions and presented to the government for approval.

The director of the department of demographic policy and social protection at the Ministry, Svetlana Petrova, said that problems needing to be addressed in the reform of the system include: the creation of a process whereby mentally ill people receive care from close relatives; drawing charities into the provision of social care to raise the quality of services; the adoption of recommendations to support assisted living.

Petrova said that discussions with regional authorities, to draw up road maps to improve the effectiveness and quality of welfare services, are constant and ongoing. The talks are taking account of figures indicating numbers of disabled children who – at the age of 18 – are transferred, from boarding schools for the disabled, to mental health units for adults. In 2016, the figure was 73.6%, but by 2017 it had fallen to 58.2%.

Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2018/03/16/mintrud-kontseptsiya/