WAYS OF ADAPTION A SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM TO PEOPLE’S OF THE RETIREMENT AGE NEEDS

Abstract

Ukraine, as a socially oriented state, is building its own social support system, within which pensioners are a significant part of recipients of social benefits and consumers of social services. In this regard, a number of issues related to identifying retired people’s needs, adapting the social support system to them, and its real capabilities to meet these needs are relevant. Therefore, this article is devoted to the problems of retired citizens’ needs and the ability of Ukrainian social support system to meet these needs. The purpose of the article is to study the specifics of the needs for providing effective social support and improving the quality of life of the elderly, especially in the conditions of increasing risks of social vulnerability and narrowing financial capacity of social protection. The authors have analyzed the specificity of emotional, physiological, physical, cultural, and intellectual needs caused by the retired people’s age characteristics. It has been established that retired people’s needs are generally characterized by subjectivity, which is formed by four main factors: 1) their age; 2) their state of health; 3) their financial well-being; 4) having the relatives who can provide assistance if it is needed. The ways of adapting the social support system to the needs of the elderly, which are represented by both traditional and innovative social practices existing in the country, are outlined. Traditional practices include: 1) financial support, including pensions and financial assistance; 2) support in the form of food, fuel, medicines, hygiene products, providing hot meals, etc.; 3) social services at home and in residential institutions; 4) psychological and social support in the form of various consultations, organization of cultural leisure, etc. At the same time, it is concluded that in the future the role of innovative practices of social work with the elderly will increase, including socio-psychological counseling, the organization of new type of residential care facilities to eliminate social isolation and promote their active participation in social life, integrated social services, and the functioning of mutual aid groups. Thus, the scientific novelty of this article lies in the improvement of approaches to determining the retired people’s subjective needs and the development of ways of adapting the social support system to the needs of these citizens by presenting a scheme of establishing connections between characteristics, needs, and policies. The authors used the following methods of scientific research: analysis and synthesis, logical generalization, graphic method.

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