15/09/2023
On September 15, 2023, a workshop on the classification (categorization) of persons with disabilities was held in the restaurant "Dve Liri" in Resen. In cooperation with PHI Health Center– Resen, and especially with the director Dr. Sanja Andonovska, we agreed the details for this significant meeting. In the preparations for the workshop, in addition to the president of Mobility Bitola - pr. Dr. Niko Jankov - who was a committee member for more than 30 years, Prof. Dr. Sasho Kochankovski, an expert on this issue and on human rights, as well as a member of the commission for almost four decades. The president of Mobility Macedonia, Branimir Jovanovski, who has thorough experience in operationalizing the ideas and needs of people with disabilities at the highest level of the state, was also invited to this meeting. The main goal is to understand the social-medical versus functional model of deployment (categorization) and initial experiences in this domain, including the thoughts of those present - doctors, psychologists, special educators (specialists), social workers and teachers during the process of introduction and success on the field. The terminological dilemmas encountered and domesticated were explained to the attendees. With the introduction, the president of Mobility Bitola directed the attendees to the essence of our commitments for successful and expedient deployment and desirable recategorization – redeployment within a reasonable time, timely and expedient. Prof. Kochankovski explained in detail and through a comparative approach to the Regulations, the terminological and other dilemmas that stand in the way of implementation. The President of Mobility Macedonia referred to moments in the redeployment at the highest level and the necessity for joint action at all levels. The workshop was attended by members of Mobility Bitola from Bitola and Resen, medical personnel, social workers and teachers, who were also awarded certificates of participation. Unfortunately, despite the invitation and direct advocacy, there were no representatives from the local self-government from Resen at the workshop. The local self-government is the most significant link in the functioning of the process of inclusion of deployment and the further course of their life path. We hope that this workshop was productive and that it will fill a place in the process of implementation of good practices of the associations of persons with disabilities (disability) on the life path towards the achievement of the strategic and programmatic goals that they have outlined.
