Russian Red Cross launches one-stop portal for finding care assistants
Russian Red Cross launches one-stop portal for finding care assistants
The platform will allow people to search for a social worker, nanny or home help
04.05.2023
The one-stop information portal Help is Here, where users will be able to find a care assistant or nanny, is currently online in ten pilot areas: the regions of Kaluga, Kaliningrad, Ulyanovsk, Belgorod, Tambov, Samara and Pskov; the republics of Karelia and Tuva; and Kamchatka. By the end of 2023, the portal will be available in 85 regions across Russia.
Those who can register on the site include qualified support staff, social workers and volunteers who have undergone the required training, as well as the service users themselves and their representatives. Specialist care assistants will be vetted by running a qualifications check through the federal register, after which they will be interviewed by a psychologist from the Russian Red Cross (RRC). This means that the service users can be sure than the information about the support workers, and the organisations they represent is reliable, as Olesya Nazarova explained. Ms. Nazarova is the project director and deputy executive director for programmes at the RRC.
The portal will help people to find more quickly the care specialist that they need, and will improve service quality by establishing a transparent and competitive market in expert practitioners. The RRC hopes that the system will improve the quality of life for older people and those with special needs who require healthcare support.
The Help is Here portal will also be able to identify people’s needs and give them tailored assistance: experts and volunteers can react quickly to requests, and support portal users who are unable to navigate the challenges of homelife or just need someone to talk to. Where relevant, the RRC can also start fundraising or enlist the help of other socially focused CSOs.
