One day in the life of a social worker: how to become indispensable and what services are the most popular among South Ural pensioners?

And he will buy bread, and clean up, and listen. Social worker Olena Gvozdik has been the most long-awaited guest in the homes of single pensioners for more than 20 years. Today she, like many of her other colleagues, has a holiday - in Russia they celebrate the Day of the Social Worker. The day before, the Gubernia correspondents spent a whole working day with Elena Gvozdik.

The activity of a social worker can be compared to the production cycle in a large factory with a continuous working week, where the process cannot be stopped. If social workers stopped their activities even for a day, then many people, including lonely pensioners, disabled people, would be left without food, medicine and without attention. Social worker Olena Gvozdik has been the most long-awaited guest in the homes of single pensioners for more than 20 years. In total, in the Chelyabinsk region, more than 2,900 social workers provide home services to those in need of help, who provide social services to more than 35,000 South Ural residents.

For the lonely - a meeting like a holiday

- Hello! How are you doing?

- Already better. Come on!

Elena Gvozdik, as usual with large bags full of food and household items, enters the apartment of her first ward, Maria Alexandrovna Kurenkova. Here she is already waiting. First, the guest goes with the hostess to the kitchen: puts food on the table - sugar, ketchup, adjika, milk, potatoes, gingerbread - everything that Maria Alexandrovna asked to buy at the last meeting. Maria Kurenkova is one of 12 wards of Elena Gvozdik from the village of Pervomaisky, Korkinsky municipal district. Many of them are lonely, some have children living in other cities, and due to their advanced age and health status, it is already difficult for them to serve themselves on their own.

“I almost died in January. It became bad, there is no air. Only thanks to Lena, who promptly called the doctor, she ended up in the hospital. The daughter lives in Korkino, before the grandson was nearby, but he died. I am very grateful to Lena for her help. I have been using the services of a social worker for more than three years. I walk around the room with a question mark, I rarely go outside, but even if I go out for a walk, I can’t bring anything, I’m suffocating, I have a second disability group, ”says Maria Kurenkova.

However, the main thing for Maria Alexandrovna, however, probably, like for all the wards of Elena Gvozdik, is not even that they will bring bread, help pay for utilities or clean up the apartment. The main thing is the possibility of communication. Many elderly people almost never leave the house, they literally have no one to have a word with. And Elena not only provides such an opportunity to pensioners, but also does it with special sensitivity.

- You sit at home like a wolf all day, the TV is already boring, and crossword puzzles are not encouraging. And here comes Lena - such happiness! Maria Kurenkova says

There really is a lot to listen to. Elena Gvozdik does not hide the fact that sometimes there is not enough time for everyone. According to the regulations, she is given about 20-25 minutes for each ward. But, of course, Elena does not fit into this limit. She knows with what impatience her visits are awaited by her wards.

- For example, I can stay with Vladimir Stepanovich Bespalov for an hour, then we will measure his pressure, otherwise he will start telling me about politics! Well, how can I leave without listening to the end? - Elena Gvozdik asks a rhetorical question.

12 addresses per day

From Maria Alexandrovna we went to Polina Grigorievna Ponomareva. Three days a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - Elena Gvozdik "works in the field." These days she is supposed to make rounds of the wards. In others, a woman goes on errands, and also handles the necessary paperwork duties of a social worker in the office. You have to walk a lot, everything is on foot. For groceries, to various instances to pay for services, to a pharmacy, and what is it worth to go around 12 addresses in one day! In this profession, you need to do a lot more than the job descriptions prescribe.

“Sometimes you need help on the weekends. I call Lena, ask me to buy something, bring something, she never refuses, - says Polina Grigoryevna. - We are always in touch, if you need something, I call her on the phone. It turns out, of course, that we see each other more than three times a week!

Polina Grigorievna is almost 90 years old. An elderly woman says that the year before last she underwent heart surgery, this year her stomach was operated on. Nevertheless, Polina Ponomareva is one of the most spectacular grandmothers among the wards of Elena Gvozdik. She always meets a social worker "at the parade" - in a smart dress, with a neat haircut. When asked what Elena Gvozdik does for her, she answers briefly: “everything!”.

“Whatever I ask, I go and get medicine, and bring it, give it, help me wash, wash. Everyone would be served like Lena! She is like a native person, - says a resident of Pervomaisky. - We are elderly people and sometimes we get nervous, capricious, we can say unpleasant words, but Lena forgives everything. I tell her: "do not be offended by fools"!

There are no bad old men

Buying groceries, paying receipts, bringing medicines - this is a typical, but by no means complete list of services that a social worker provides to his wards. He is like that very famous Shvets, reaper and player on the pipe.

You don't know what they might ask. Sometimes I come, my grandmother did the laundry herself, but she can’t hang up the linen - it’s hard. I'm helping. Throw out trash. Or stroke the curtain, - says Elena Gvozdik.

After 17 years, which Elena worked in the village of Shumaki, helping pensioners from apartment buildings for her is like solving a first-class problem for a mathematician.

“I moved to the village four years ago. Previously, she worked in the village, where only private houses. Grandmothers had to clean the snow, there was no water - they dragged it in buckets. Someone needs to help in the garden, someone needs to flood the stove. It was hard, of course. In addition, I had to get there on my own. The head of the village called me a million times, but I could not leave my grandmothers, - Elena smiles.

Time inexorably moved forward, and gradually all the village wards of Elena Gvozdik, many of whom at that time were approaching 90 years old, began to pass away. For some time, the social worker worked in two settlements - she provided assistance to new pensioners in Pervomaisky, continuing to visit her old grandmothers in Shumaki.

The total experience of Elena Gvozdik in the field of social protection of the population is 21 years. Once her sister called her here. She herself could not work as a social worker, she left, and Elena remained.

- Of course, the salary is small, but someone needs to work. I'm lucky: I don't have bad old men! All my grandparents are good. Of course, different came across for twenty years of experience, sometimes you had to show firmness. Still, you try to understand everyone, because each person has his own character, each has something of his own in his soul. You try to listen, find words of support, encourage, - says Elena Gvozdyk.

The working day of Elena Gvozdik can end late in the evening - at eight or nine o'clock. But Elena's own family is not offended that she works so hard, on the contrary - both her husband and children help as much as they can - if you need to bring something heavy, for example. “We work in the field of social protection with the whole family,” says the social worker.

We said goodbye to Elena after the second visit. I wanted to continue the joint trip to the wards, but my conscience haunted me: the social worker had to go around 10 more people, and it was painfully embarrassing to steal her time. Indeed, every minute of this amazing woman is worth its weight in gold. And it’s not at all that “mortal metal”, her time taken is minutes stolen from our old people who need not only bread, but also human warmth, care and a kind word - everything that social workers bestow on them.

Who can be a social worker?

– We do not require special education, every year our employees undergo various trainings – from first aid courses to seminars on changes in legislation in the social sphere,- told the "Province" Nikolai Shvets, director of the MBUSP "Integrated Center for Social Services to the Population" of the Korkinsky municipal district. - We will teach everything. The main thing is the willingness of a person to become a social worker. It must be a conscious decision. After all, a social worker is not only the one who brings food or pays for an apartment, he is sometimes required to cut his nails, change diapers, and read a book with his wards! At the same time, we have practically no staff turnover. All our employees, and there are 46 of them in the Korkinsky municipal district, are caring people who have been working in this area for many years. After all, the work is really hard not only physically, it is a great moral burden. Everything has to be passed through. Elderly people have accumulated a certain baggage of problems, they need not only to bring food, they need communication, understanding.

Tatyana Nikitina: "Our pensioners did not feel the tariff increase"

Who has the right to use the services of a social worker and what services are the most popular among South Ural pensioners, Tatyana Nikitina, Minister of Social Relations of the Chelyabinsk Region, tells Gubernia in a blitz interview.

- Tatyana Evgenievna, who can use the services of a social worker and what needs to be done for this?

– The services of social workers are entitled to be used by elderly citizens (women over 50 years old, men over 60 years old) or disabled people who have partially or completely lost the opportunity to self-service. To use the help of a social worker, first you should contact the Comprehensive Center for Social Services at the place of residence. It is necessary to provide documents: a medical document that the citizen has really partially or completely lost the ability to self-service and cannot do without outside help; identity document; certificate of income, family composition. Documents can be brought by relatives, acquaintances, neighbors; if this is not possible, and it is difficult for the person to come himself, then you can call and arrange for the center's employees to come to the house. Within five working days from the date of submission of the application, the authorized body (in this case, the department of social protection of the population) decides that the person needs social services at home, after which he must notify the citizen in writing. Within 10 days from the date of application, an individual program for the provision of social services is developed.

- Services are chosen by the citizen himself?

- Yes. The guaranteed list of social services includes 22 services. The citizen chooses the types of assistance that he needs. Usually they take 3-5 services. The most popular is home delivery of food and industrial goods. The types of servants are fixed in the individual program, the frequency of their execution is indicated.

- What is the tariff for the service?

From January 1, 2015, when, in accordance with the Federal Law "On the Fundamentals of Social Services for Citizens in the Russian Federation", tariffs are developed on the basis of per capita funding standards, that is, the cost of the service is calculated - all costs for its provision, and according to federal law, the tariff should be equal to this cost. But we, in order to avoid a sharp jump in prices, for a number of the most popular services have made tariffs in the amount of 50 percent of the standard. Therefore, the process of transition to new tariffs in the Chelyabinsk region went smoothly. I know that in a number of regions there was a sharp jump, while our recipients of social services did not feel the transition to new tariffs. For example, today the total cost of providing the most popular service - the purchase and home delivery of food products - is 28 rubles per service (in accordance with the State Standard, the service is provided three times a week). In addition, there are categories of people to whom social services are provided free of charge. These are citizens whose average per capita income is below one and a half of the subsistence minimum, disabled children, as well as disabled people and participants in the Great Patriotic War.

More than 35,000 South Ural residents are on social services

Over 2900 - so many social workers in the Chelyabinsk region provide home services to those in need of assistance