Residents should be better informed about opportunities to receive social services and participate in health promotion activities

At present, the Riga municipal government is performing its functions in the area of social assistance and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle excellently, in accordance with the available funding; however, there are still residents who do not take advantage of the opportunities offered.

“We have an exceptional team whose first priority is a sense of mission; we all want to help our fellow human beings. Therefore, we need to speak with the public more often so that information reaches everyone who needs it. We must also encourage people to participate in the various health promotion and disease prevention activities offered by the Welfare Department,” said the Chair of the Riga City Council Social Affairs Committee.

During the meeting, Welfare Department Director Irēna Kondrāte outlined the main current problem—the high staff turnover in social-sector institutions, which is related both to the level of remuneration and to the unsuitable education of some employees. The committee chair acknowledged that, within the limits of possibility, she would advocate for the allocation of additional funding in the municipal budget for this year: consideration would have to be given to where funding for social benefits and services could be increased, and work would also have to be done to raise the remuneration of social-sector employees.

It was also noted that a major challenge for the social sector is the deterioration of public health—the number of people requiring long-term care at home is continually increasing.

Therefore, the work already carried out in the area of health promotion was positively assessed, including the portal created by the department, www.veseligsridzinieks.lv, and the Facebook page, which was visited nearly 80,000 times during the year. The portal provides information about various health promotion activities, addiction prevention and other important topics.

The committee chair stated that, in the course of further work, she plans to gradually visit all of Riga’s shelters, social care centres and other institutions under the authority of the Welfare Department in order to familiarise herself with the situation first-hand.