PARAPLEGICS who are waiting since last June for an allowance are being told the state doesn’t know how many of them there are in Cyprus, the Paraplegics Association said yesterday.
The revelation came from Demetris Lambrianides, the head of the association, who was commenting on Wednesday’s report from the European Commission, which said it had received no help from Cypriot authorities when compiling a report on people with disabilities.
“We are waiting since last June for a care allowance for paraplegics and the excuse they keep giving is that they don’t know how many people are paraplegics,” Lambrianides said.
He said no research had yet been done to establish the numbers.
“They should have the numbers, but they don’t do anything,” he said.
“If they really wanted to, they could bring in researchers. Research is extremely important to create the infrastructure necessary to help disabled people to live on their own and have an independent life.”
Lambrianides found it unbelievable that the EU had received absolutely no assistance from the state.
The report said the collection of data about residential services for people with disabilities in Cyprus had proved a very difficult task and that the establishment of key contacts within the country had been impossible.
EU researchers had tried to contact the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare several times but all attempts came to nothing.
Even the information researchers did manage to obtain, after having to resort to the internet, lacked reliability and accuracy, the EU report said.
When contacted by the Cyprus Mail yesterday, Health Minister Costas Kadis said he was unaware of the report and of the extracts that were published. He said he would find someone to track it down. A call to the Labour Ministry was not returned.
The first-of-its-kind EU-wide project aims to bring together the available information on the number of disabled people living in residential institutions in 28 European countries, and to identify successful strategies for replacing institutions with community-based services, paying particular attention to economic issues in the transition. It is the most wide-ranging study of its kind ever undertaken, the Commission said.
Lambrianides said that in fact very few people with disabilities were actually institutionalised, and that most were living in the community.
However, the problem was lack of financial resources, he said.
“Those living in the community do not have support they need,” said Lambrianides.
“To live in the community, they need financial assistance because if they have a severe disability, they need someone to care for them and if they don’t get the money from the welfare, they have to pay themselves.
If you can’t afford to pay, you will be dependent on family and friends.
It’s really something that touches on human rights issues.”
The EU report had also referred to the law which provides for the creation of a special fund for financial assistance and support of people with disabilities for their social integration and vocational rehabilitation.
However, it found “quite astonishing” the fact that according to the Law itself, all the resources of that special fund were to be raised from the private sector.
The law had been fixed so that no expenses would be incurred by the state, according to the report.
