On October 23, the ExpoForum hosted a conference «Caring for the Elderly: Developing a Long-Term Care System. Interdepartmental Approach». The event united 250 specialists from 20 regions.

The conference was organized by the Social Policy Committee of St. Petersburg, the St. Petersburg State Institution «Social Services Organization Centre», the St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution of Social Services «Complex Centre of the Vasileostrovsky District», the St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution «Social Services Complex Centre of the Moskovsky District».

First Deputy Chairman of the Social Policy Committee of St. Petersburg Galina Kolosova presented a report on the topic «The Future of Long-Term Care System in St. Petersburg: Strategies for System Development and Transformation of Professional Communications of Specialists». According to her, today non-governmental and governmental organizations are included in the home care system.

The expert spoke about the system of social services at home consisting of three levels: social and household, specialized social and medical services, and social and medical care. Today, about 44 thousand St. Petersburg residents receive services in complex social service centres, more than 2 thousand in the non-governmental sector, and the city’s long-term care infrastructure includes 18 care schools and 34 rental services for technical rehabilitation equipment, she noted.

«Special attention is paid to personnel. We had to go through transformation of responsibilities of social workers and transition from «nurse» standard to «care assistant» standard, which came into force at the end of March 2024», – said Galina Kolosova.

In her opinion, it is necessary to develop the possibilities of social and medical care, to form standards, to involve those who are retiring today in the activities and to support the system of relatives’ care.

«Interdepartmental cooperation is currently developing mainly in the public sector – we have signed 18 tripartite cooperation agreements between the Social Policy Committee, the Healthcare Committee and district administrations. The goal is to make systems work together to increase the availability of medical care and social services. Another task is to create simulation classes and expand the labor market for care assistants, as well as to implement digital technologies», – underlined Galina Kolosova.

Oksana Mironova, Head of the Department for Interdepartmental Interaction in Social Services and Social Support, Head of the St. Petersburg State Institution «Social Services Organization Centre», spoke about the organization of work to identify citizens who need care and their inclusion in the long-term care system.

According to her, the tasks of territorial and regional centres include not only identifying citizens who need care, but also selecting services, and information about those who need care comes from citizens, medical organizations and social service centres.

«The long-term care system is aimed not only at the person who needs care, but also at those around him», – the expert added. According to her, interaction with medical organizations should be automated, in addition, it is necessary to implement the recommendations of the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Health in the work of medical and social services, train experts, etc.

Savely Ratner, Head of the Petrogradsky District Bureau of the St. Petersburg State Institution «Social Services Organization Centre» spoke about the expert work of Territorial Coordination Centre employees. Thus, experts collect information about the applicant, determine the individual needs of the citizen for care, and also determine the format of possible social services.

Elena Filatova, Deputy Director for Social Work presented experience of implementation of long-term care system in St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution «Social Services Complex Centre of the Moskovsky District». She noted that the district serves people of different ages who need a variety of services.

«The main goal is to provide people with comprehensive social services and medical care, as well as to train their families in care», – she added.

According to her, in order to develop long-term care system, it is necessary to train staff and provide support system for relatives.

Lyubov Nazarova, Director of St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution of Social Services «Complex Centre of the Vasileostrovsky District», spoke about the infrastructure of the long-term care system. The expert spoke about the development of rental points for technical rehabilitation equipment and care schools.

«If a resident comes to us for help in caring for a relative, we immediately invite a psychologist to work. In addition, we conduct thematic classes, for example, on care after a stroke, select a team to conduct classes, prepare methodological materials and offer a hospital-replacing technology «respite» – one to two months within the framework of relatives’ care», noted L. Nazarova.

Oksana Nesterenko, Deputy Director of St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution of Social Services «Complex Centre of the Vasileostrovsky District» shared the experience of interdepartmental interaction. Thus, the centre closely cooperates with district clinics and city hospitals supporting citizens of several categories: the older people, disabled people of working age, homeless people, SVO participants and their family members.

She noted a number of difficulties in interdepartmental interaction: lack of common information base, problem of organizing access to highly specialized specialists, problem of providing palliative care to disabled people of working age and citizens with oncology and concentration of work on personal contacts.

The experience of the Ryazan region in developing a long-term care system was presented by Natalia Idrisova, Director of the State Institution «Social Services Resource Centre». Thus, the region actively uses a single digital circuit that reflects medical recommendations for citizens and unites the interaction of medical and social organizations. The digital system demonstrates the status of a citizen (included in the long-term care system, refused or removed from service, is in hospital, etc.) and helps to optimize the work of departments.

«We keep up with the times, digitalize everything that can be digitalized, and specialists use tablets – this significantly simplifies work in the remote areas of the region. The assessment takes 25–30 minutes», – the expert underlined.

In turn, Yulia Rumina, Head of Organization and Educational and Methodological Support of Advanced Training Department of St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution «City Information and Methodological Centre «Family» spoke about system of staff training that ensures implementation of the long-term care system in St. Petersburg. According to her, the centre develops offline and online training, trains specialists and care assistants, organizes advanced training courses inviting representatives of social institutions, healthcare and education systems to teach and conducts off-site practical classes at social service institutions.

Vladislav Rakhimov, Head of Digital Transformation Department of the St. Petersburg State Institution «City Information and Settlement Centre» spoke about automation of the long-term care system processes – about the information module and integration of data from the «Optima» system.

«Over the entire period, we have resolved more than 200 thousand requests from our colleagues and are doing everything possible to ensure that the system provides everything that is expected of it», – he noted.

The expert spoke about the opportunities for suppliers to transfer data, the process of digitalization of the long-term care system, the service for interaction with medical systems and the transition to digital documents.

The Kronstadt Social Services Complex Centre project to create a chatbot for social workers was presented by Irina Kupavykh, Deputy Director for Social Affairs. She spoke about the robotization of social services accounting, which allows reducing work time of specialists by 4 times. The project was implemented in Telegram over several months and launched on October 10.

At the end of the conference Anzhelika Bashkireva, the First Deputy General Director of the Scientific Research Centre «Professional Longevity» performed. She devoted her report to digital solutions in the interdepartmental assessment of the effectiveness of implementation of the long-term care system in Russia – information systems of various levels.

The expert spoke about the project «Support and Care for Senior Generation!», implemented by the Scientific Research Centre «Professional Longevity». According to her, lack of computer knowledge among the older people prevents them from using medical and social services to the fullest extent.

Conference participants agreed on the need to develop interdepartmental interaction in the field of long-term care – cooperation between medical and social service organizations, patients and their families.