Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Koshulynskyi stresses on priority of legislative improvement and systematization of all provisions regulating status of children with disabilities.
Opening on Wednesday parliamentary hearings entitled “Education, health care and social insurance of children with disorder in psychophysical development: problems and ways of their settlement”, R. Koshulynskyi claimed that in Ukraine, as around the globe, there is a tendency towards increasing the number of people with such disabilities. Particularly, total number of children with disabilities is increasing annually by 0,5%, as of the beginning of the year this number constitutes 167 059 persons or 0,2% from all children of the country.
R. Koshulynskyi stressed that policy of modern Ukraine regarding children with disorder in psychophysical development as a minority group which requires rehabilitation and integration is characterized by maximum involvement of the state in a systematic settling of the problem.
Having emphasized that mastering social experience by such children and their involvement in the system of social relations requires additional efforts and means from the society, he stated that the issue on introducing new approaches to organization of learning process of persons with special educational needs which would be based on democratic, anti-discrimination foundation is of great importance.
“It is necessary to apply immediate measures aimed at implementation of social needs of children with disabilities, firstly, neutralize restrictions hindering processes of their socialization and individual development, introducing efficient forms of social aid and support”, stressed Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.
R. Koshulynskyi claimed health of children with disabilities presents a critical problem. He added that here an important role is played by unsatisfactory system of medical support, worsening of food products quality, technological overload, increase of stressful situations in everyday life of children, etc.
Taking into account all the abovementioned, R. Koshulynskyi claimed the Parliament should determine priorities and ways of work of central state executive authorities, local self-government authorities, business, NGOs, educational, health care, social protection establishments and institutions regarding improving the state of affairs in these spheres. “We need to change social opinion on problems of people with disabilities. The other important thing is further improvement of legal regulation of the status of children with disabilities”, he said.
In this context, R. Koshulynskyi expressed himself in favour of necessity of improving and systematizing all provisions regulating the status of children with disabilities by codifying current norms or creating legislative bases in this sphere.
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