The Community Development Department has broken barriers and provides them with comprehensive support

5 challenges facing people of determination in Abu Dhabi

  • The department supports people of determination and their families with high-quality services.

    From the source

  • Engineer Hamad Al Dhaheri: “The department aims to make Abu Dhabi an inclusive, prepared and empowering city for people of determination.”

picture

The Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi has identified five main challenges facing the people of determination in the emirate, who number about 20,000 citizens and residents, most of whom suffer from neurodevelopmental disorders, stressing that the Abu Dhabi strategy for people of determination, which was recently launched, is a comprehensive and integrated roadmap towards empowerment. And the integration of people of determination, and making the Emirate of Abu Dhabi an inclusive and enabling society for them by breaking all barriers that hinder their access to rights, services and equitable opportunities, and building a comprehensive support system for them and their families, as they are an integral part of society.

The Undersecretary of the Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi, Engineer Hamad Ali Al Dhaheri, affirmed that the department has achieved tangible achievements and remarkable progress within the six axes of the Abu Dhabi Strategy for People of Determination (education, employment, health, social care, universal access, and enablers), which was launched last September, and includes 30 initiatives will be implemented with the participation of more than 28 concerned local and federal government agencies, with the aim of making the Emirate of Abu Dhabi an inclusive, well-structured, and enabling city for people of determination.

In detail, the Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi stated, in a recent report, that neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disability, and specific learning disorders, are among the most common disabilities in the emirate, noting that people of determination face a number of challenges resulting from The environmental, communication, behavioral and institutional barriers existing in society, most notably the lack of comprehensive and integrated educational, social, health care systems, which hinders the access of people of determination and their families to quality services that meet their individual and varied needs at affordable prices.

She indicated that the challenges facing people of determination include the lack of equal and equitable opportunities for students of determination to reach quality inclusive education in regular schools, including a comprehensive support system within the school, which includes preparing the school and classroom environment, qualified educational staff, and supportive services. And the various approved educational curricula, which ensure the availability of educational options and alternatives that meet different needs, and the studied transitional paths between school stages and between care and rehabilitation centers for people of determination and regular schools.

She pointed out that the challenges of people of determination include limited opportunities to find work in an open work environment, due to the lack of incentives and adequate support for employers to effectively and sustainable employment for people of determination, and the lack of opportunities and programs for education, training and vocational rehabilitation of quality in the pre-employment and post-employment phase, to enhance skills. The employment policy of people of determination, and their readiness to move to work, as well as the absence of a comprehensive integrated employment policy with an enforcement mechanism, and clear roles and responsibilities between the concerned authorities.

The rest of the challenges included: People of Determination and their families incurred exorbitant costs resulting from the requirements of disability, which threatens their decent standard of living and quality of life, in addition to the obstacles that people of determination face in terms of community participation in public life areas, including culture, sports, arts, entertainment, and volunteering, as a result. Unavailability of a qualified environment in terms of the built environment, transportation, qualified housing, services, programs, products and information.

The department revealed that 82% of the initiative to develop a government policy for inclusive employment for people of determination has been completed to enable them by providing them with job opportunities in the government and private sectors, and a thorough study and in-depth analysis of the legislation and procedures in force in Abu Dhabi, including the analysis of the employment rate of people of determination in government agencies for the year 2020, in addition to preparing standard comparisons, reviewing current policies, and identifying the challenges facing inclusive employment in the labor markets, in addition to work currently on launching a set of questionnaires to study the conditions of people of determination in the work environment.

The department indicated the launch of the "Fellows of Determination" awareness program, which is directed at Abu Dhabi government employees to support their colleagues from this category, in addition to preparing for the application of their occupational classification, establishing a job record for them in the Abu Dhabi government, developing an electronic system that supports job nomination for people of determination, and designing A guide to employing them in the emirate.

The department clarified that the achievement rate in the “Handicap Classification Handbook” reached 35%, and a detailed action plan was drawn up for the “People of Determination Services Officer” initiative, which aims to appoint a number of persons responsible for the services of this category in the relevant authorities in the government and private sectors, in addition to starting to prepare A database for people of determination in the emirate, where the electronic connection with the concerned local authorities was completed, in addition to preparing a methodology for the People of Determination data register and applying the standard for managing and indexing the record data.

She indicated that the department, in cooperation with its partners, began reviewing policies related to inclusive education in the emirate, building partnerships with training providers for workers in the educational sector, training schools in Abu Dhabi on the inclusive education model, and accessing inclusive sports programs that seek to improve the readiness of sports facilities and coaches. To ensure the participation and integration of people of determination in all sporting activities and events, in order to achieve the principle of "sport for all", as the initial evaluation of 12 sports clubs was completed.

She emphasized the start of the implementation of two basic initiatives, "the development of a unified, comprehensive and integrated evaluation framework for people of determination", and the "early intervention" program, which aims to establish integrated programs for early detection, diagnosis and intervention in line with international best practices to help children exposed to developmental delay, and build local specialized capacities in This field, and raising community awareness about the importance of early intervention.

• “Community Development in Abu Dhabi” has achieved 82% of the inclusive employment policy.

Integrated care for people of determination

The Department of Community Development has reported that 70% of the initiative to establish an integrated care system for people of determination and their families has been completed in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, which includes providing health, rehabilitation, educational and social services of high quality and acceptable cost to people of determination in order to meet their invasions and support efforts to create an inclusive environment for them. % Of the "Change Management" plan, which aims to accelerate the desired transformation process in the emirate by communicating with stakeholders to raise awareness, and to complete 20% of the "evaluation and follow-up framework" initiative that is being developed to monitor the extent of the strategy's impact on improving their conditions, by measuring a set of indicators the performance.

Abu Dhabi Strategy for People of Determination

The Department of Community Development confirmed that the Abu Dhabi strategy for people of determination aims to support people of determination and their families, under an integrated system that provides high-quality services to enable them to effectively participate in society with the contribution of the private sector and the social sector, in order to reach an inclusive and empowering society for this category, by building a culture A society based on the human rights perspective for people of determination, activating their role and their families, empowering them by involving them in the transformation process towards an inclusive society, creating an inclusive environment to provide equal access to rights, services and opportunities in all stages of life, and ensuring the provision of integrated and high-quality services, in addition to developing a legislative framework Evidence-based and sustainable for people of determination and their families.

• 20 thousand citizens and residents of people of determination in Abu Dhabi.

Follow our latest local and sports news, and the latest political and economic developments via Google news