Ministry Of Social Security Research Articles

The Contribution of Swedish International Development and Co-operation Agency (SIDA) into the implementation of Community Social Services Development Project

The goal of the paper is to present the content and implementation of “Community social services development” project. The project was executed in collaboration between Swedish International Development and Co-operation Agency (SIDA) and the Ministry of Social Security and Labour of the Republic of Lithuania. The main goal of the project was to construct the alternative social service system. The financial resources of SIDA were used to evaluate the project and to finance qualification improvement programs.

Occupational health in Brazil.

Brazil is a recently industrialised country with marked contrasts in social and economic development. The availability of public/private services in its different regions also varies. Health indicators follow these trends. Occupational health is a vast new field, as in other developing countries. Occupational medicine is a required subject in graduation courses for physicians. Specialisation courses for university graduated professionals have more than 700 hours of lectures and train occupational health physicians, safety engineers and nursing staff. At the technical level, there are courses with up to 1300 hours for the training of safety inspectors. Until 1986 about 19,000 occupational health physicians, 18,000 safety engineers and 51,000 safety inspectors had been officially registered. Although in its infancy, postgraduation has attracted professionals at university level, through residence programmes as well as masters and doctors degrees, whereby at least a hundred good-quality research studies have been produced so far. Occupational health activities are controlled by law. Undertakings with higher risks and larger number of employees are required to hire specialised technical staff. In 1995 the Ministry of Labour demanded programmes of medical control of occupational health (PCMSO) for every worker as well as a programme of prevention of environmental hazards (PPRA). This was considered as a positive measure for the improvement of working conditions and health at work. Physicians specialising in occupational medicine are the professionals more often hired by the enterprises. Reference centres (CRSTs) for workers' health are connected to the State or City Health Secretariat primary health care units. They exist in more populated areas and are accepted by workers as the best way to accomplish the diagnosis of occupational diseases. There is important participation by the trade unions in the management of these reference centres. For 30 years now employers organisations have also kept specialised services for safety and occupational health. Although they are better equipped they are less well used by the workers than the CRSTs. At the federal level, activities concerned with occupational health are connected to three ministries: Labour, Health and Social Security. The Ministry of Labour enacts legislation on hygiene, safety and occupational medicine, performs inspections through its regional units and runs a number of research projects. The Ministry of Health provides medical care for workers injured or affected by occupational diseases and also has surveillance programmes for certain occupational diseases. The Ministry of Social Security provides rehabilitation and compensation for registered workers. In spite of a decrease in the number of accidents at work during the past 25 years, working conditions have not improved. Changes in the laws of social security in the 1970s discouraged registration and reporting of occupational injuries and diseases. In consequence death rates due to accidents increased. With the implementation of the CRSTs, the recorded incidence of occupational diseases has risen, not only because of improved diagnosis, but also because of stronger pressure from the unions and better organisation of public services and enterprises.

There Are More Than a Million Handicapped Children in Russia

A presidential edict dated 12 July 1994 abolished the Russian Federation President's Coordinating Committee for Handicapped Affairs. From now on, the Ministry of Social Security will be in charge of handicapped children's affairs. Our correspondent attended a press conference given by A. I. Osadchikh, the deputy minister of social security. It is clear from his remarks that the country's handicapped need immediate help from the state. To this day there is no federal program for problems of the handicapped, no federal system of accounting and reporting. Numbers of handicapped persons are estimated on the basis of aggregate statistics from various departments.

II All-Russian Conference on Biomechanics

The II All-Russian Conference on Biomechanics in Memory of N.A. Bernstein was held in Nizhny Novgorod on November 22-25, 1994. The conference was held under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Social Security, and the Society of Biomechanics of Russia. Great merit in its organization belonged to the Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy, the Nizhny Novgorod Branch of the Interdisciplinary Institute of Medical and Social Rehabilitation, and the Research Center "Radiomechanics and Rehabilitation".

The Supplementary Benefit (General) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 1972

The Secretary of State for Social Services, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 17(1) of the Ministry of Social Security Act 1966 and now vested in him by article 2 of the Secretary of State for Social Services Order 1968 hereby makes the following regulations:—

The Supplementary Benefit (Recovery by Deductions from Earnings) Regulations 1972

The Secretary of State for Social Services, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 17(1) of the Ministry of Social Security Act 1966, section 2(6) and (9) of, and paragraph 1(3) of Part I of Schedule 1 to, the Social Security Act 1971, and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, hereby makes the following regulations:—

Social Security Act 1971

An Act to amend the law relating to benefit under the Ministry of Social Security Act 1966 and to certain benefits under the National Insurance Act 1965 and the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act 1965; to increase the penalties for failure to pay contributions under the said Acts of 1965; to abolish local advisory committees under the said Act of 1966; and for purposes connected with those matters. [5th August 1971]

Concepts and Practices in Italian Social Work

In 2004, Siauliai University Social Research Centre carried out research commissioned by the Ministry of Social Security and Labour and aimed at developing a service model for rehabilitation and re-integration of the victims of trafficking in women and prostitution with regard to the peculiarities of the existing rehabilitation and re-integration service system. The new model should foresee the content and the direction of services offered to the victims as well as preconditions for creating the network of systemic services. The following problem questions have been posed: what are the achievements/strengths or weaknesses/ shortcomings of projects dealing with rehabilitation and re-integration of the victims of trafficking in women and prostitution, already implemented and supported by the Ministry of Social Security and Labor? What factors determine or limit the successful integration of the victims into the system of rehabilitation services? How should such services be developed in the future to achieve their higher efficiency? In what way should the system of services to the victims of trafficking in women and prostitution be expanded to ensure a better functioning of all the links of the system? A qualitative research methodology has been applied for analysis: representatives of 12 organizations providing rehabilitation services for trafficking victims were interviewed; in addition, interviews were carried out with members of police, public administration and other specialists. An extra analysis of the documents of several implemented rehabilitation projects and semi-standardized written survey of project administrators was carried out. Social construction and personal empowerment theories constitute the theoretical background of the research. Some weaknesses of the rehabilitation system for the victims of trafficking in women in Lithuania have been revealed: unfavorable attitudes of the potential members of the rehabilitation system towards the victims, the importance and prospects of their reintegration; collaboration among the project partners, mostly NGOs, is not based on the concept of networking; collaboration among various agencies, especially NGOs, police and municipality, is more of an accidental character; getting victims into re-integration system is problematic due to the insufficient collaboration between service providers, police and international organizations as well as to the insufficient community awareness about the services; etc. Strengths: most often the projects are carried out by NGOs, the specific features of which (no negative stereotypes, the understanding of the person and situation of the victim, constant co-existence, confidentiality, etc.) allow them to provide re-integration services successfully. Threats: the departmental separation of agencies dealing with problems of trafficking in human beings and re-integration of its victims on both the highest (ministries) and lower level (concrete institutions) may cause the fact that the essence and the complexity of the problem is overlooked. Opportunities: with the integration of the European humanistic child rearing and education model within the systems of education and social security of Lithuania, the move from segregated institutional towards community model is likely to appear, which in its turn would decrease the number of potential victimizing environments and victims. The researchers’ recommendations have been channeled in two directions. An empowering rehabilitation and reintegration service model for victims of trafficking in women and prostitution has been designed. The model envisages three levels of integration and rehabilitation services: necessary help, social-psychological and educational-professional services. Accordingly, three definitions of trafficking in women and prostitution victim are provided. Besides, the article construes innovative networking model of rehabilitation services for the victims of trafficking in women and prostitution. The model foresees that service providing organizations apply to the Ministry of Social Security and Labour to participate in the network of rehabilitation and re-integration to provide concrete services or to coordinate the network.

The Price of Social Security

MRS. GERTRUDE WILLIAMS' book is as topical as its title suggests, but on other counts than would appear on the surface. It is in reference to the White Paper on Employment Policy that its significance chiefly lies; but it closes with a sound and constructive criticism of the Civil Service which is equally pertinent to discussion of the Assheton Report on the Training of Civil Servants. Fundamentally, the book is a study of the mobility of labour and, cogently as Mrs. Williams argues that a new mobility of labour must be part of the price to be paid for social security, it may well be doubted whether the emphasis placed by Sir William Beveridge on labour mobility, and on the selection and training of staff for the Ministry of Social Security with special regard to the functions of serving the public and understanding the human problems with which they will be concerned, is likely to reconcile those who purchase the book on the ground of their interest in social security or to find an answer to the question: Can we afford social security? The Price of Social Security By Gertrude Williams. (International Library of Sociology and Social Reconstruction.) Pp. vii + 199. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Ltd., 1944.) 12s. 6d. net.