Viva-MTS: side by side with the families getting personal assistant support
Robert, a seven-year-old boy from Vayq, has been getting new friends now as he has started going to school since September. Robert’s peers are very welcoming and the surrounding is very helping for integration. Because of cerebral palsy, the boy used to be deprived of an opportunity of making new friends, limited to communicating with only family members. For years, Robert had been getting only his mother’s care, who did the best a caring parent could possibly do. Robert who needed support of a professional has recently started getting help of a personal assistant. The help has been efficient for both the solution of the long-lasting problems of the boy, and equally the family, specifically, Robert’s mother, who has been struggling under the burden of the many responsibilities she had.
For over seven years now, Viva-MTS and the “Source” Foundation have been sparing no effort to support families in this target group. Personal assistants providing professional support to children with special needs dramatically change the situations in the families with these kids. The personal assistance helps solve issues of socialization, development of self-support skills and shaping healthy mindset, as well as problems that require specialized knowledge; the assistance is of great help for families, too, as mothers of these type of kids get a chance of self-expression and employment. The efficiency of this much needed program has increased immensely specifically because it has now been made available in the regions. And the experience and the skills let achieve tangible results in shorter time.
“We have made major progress after starting personal assistance program. The program has helped me to start focusing on my other child, on lessons, my family, and my own development and employment. I try to get education, get trainings, I want to be of help to my husband, too. I am less stressed now, because there is someone to take care after my child,” Robert’s mother, Lilit Aroyan, said.
“It is fundamental that in the recent years the personal assistant programs are implemented in regions. Children in the capital have a chance to get engaged in all sorts of programs, which is not the case with children in the regions. We have been working with Robert for the fourth month now. He used to have spasticity and was only able to move his right hand. And though four months are not enough for work with a child with muscle issues, we have some progress; Robert is already able to work with two hands by switching from his right hand to the left. We have tried to work out the contact between eyes and hands. Robert is able to do what he is asked for and follows by eyes,” Lusine Karapetyan, Robert’s personal assistant says.
One of the most vital achievements of the partnership between Viva-MTS and the “Source” Foundation is the opportunity created for young people. Retrained professionals with practice at work are able to land jobs in major specialized centers. Personal assistants work as care-provider nurses or developmental issues experts. Their selection, retraining, performance supervision, communication with parents, discussions and personalized program development for each individual child are managed by a team of various specialists.
