Every year, the European Autism Week is celebrated in the first week of December. It's an opportunity to talk about the needs of people on the spectrum and their loved ones. Those of people with profound autism are hardly met. 80 percent of autistic people with high support needs need to live in a small home or assisted housing. The Autism-Poland Alliance is collecting signatures on a petition to the prime minister.
European Autism Week is underway. Autism-Poland Alliance calls for systemic changes
Published Dec. 2, 2024 09:21
The idea is to provide dignified housing for the neediest people with disabilities as soon as possible by law. Today, the only systemic solution for these people in Poland is social welfare homes.
- These are institutions that deny decent living conditions and subjective treatment. They are too large, with too few staff, with rooms with many people and shared bathrooms in the corridor. Residents there are, as a rule, treated as objects, as they are directed to these places by administrative decision. They are not free to choose their place of residence or roommates, the Covenant members stress.
People with profound autism are in a particularly difficult situation. Their daily reality is circulating through psychiatric hospitals and taking more medications. The Autism-Poland Alliance is collecting signatures on a petition to the prime minister to create a legal framework that would result in the creation of assisted housing.
"Poland, as a member state of the European Union, has pledged to move away from institution-molooches in favor of assisted housing, small houses and apartment complexes. It is not fulfilling these commitments. DPSs are increasing every year, and the number of their residents is growing. Mr. Prime Minister, on April 10, 2014, you took part in the ceremonial laying of the cornerstone of the Aram Rybicki Home Community for Adults with Autism in Gdansk. Do you know that this much-needed place is still not permanently inhabited? This is precisely because in Poland today there is no statutorily provided alternative to large nursing homes," reads the appeal to the head of government.
Meanwhile, it turns out that proposed solutions are already partly ready - they are included in the draft law on equalization of opportunities for people with disabilities, which was developed with the help of EU funds.
- The housing provisions in this document are for use in the development of the law. Assisted Living Communities, homes for up to 12 people, are slowly being built thanks to grants from PFRON. But they are being built only in project mode, which means they are not for everyone, points out the Autism-Poland Agreement.
The report "Autism. Let's Start Counting in Poland," prepared by the Autism-Poland Alliance, shows that 80 percent of autistic people with high support needs need to live in a small home or assisted housing.
The petition can be found HERE. More than 2,300 people have already signed it.
