L’aggiornamento dell’anagrafe dell’handicap della Provincia autonoma di Trento

Abstract

[Update of the handicap registry of the Autonomous Province of Trento] There are some good reasons that support our effort to annually update the handicap registry of the Autonomous Province of Trento. The first reason is due to the fact that in our country there is an incomprehensible dispersion of information that feed the numerous existing databases on disability. This dispersion does not allow to have precise information on the actual number of people with disabilities and their characteristics. A second reason is that each functional articulation of the National Healthcare Systems is accountable to the community of what is enacted for the protection of the fundamental right to health, as proclaimed in Article 32 of the Constitution. A third reason is to make statistical data accessible to policy makers and to all the government since they have a responsibility in making strategic decisions and planning the supply of social and health services dedicated to people with disabilities. The fourth and final reason is the uniqueness of the protection given by our country to people with disabilities. But there is a fourth and final reason that supports our obstinacy: we indicate the typicality of the protection given by our country to people with disabilities. Protection that, in absolute contrast with the general logic of our welfare system, is aimed to the right of citizenship of these people (and their families) when they are not yet hospitalized in long-term structures. With the result that this database, beyond the general macro-statistical indicators, provides a clear idea of the needs that disabled people have when they actually live in the home, witnessing the strong commitment exercised by the network of relatives and the difficulties faced by families in the care burden. Between 1992 and 2012 the database managed by the Operative Unit of Legal Medicine, APSS (Azienda provinciale per i Servizi sanitari di Trento), recorded 18,380 people with disabilities who have submitted 23,920 applications designed to obtain the benefits and facilities provided by the Law of 25 February 1992, no. 104. The article presents the macro-statistical indicators database (sex and age) and some other indicators that represent the complexity of the phenomenon, such as trends of applications, types of disabilities, impairments causing disability, benefits and facilities recognized.