Regione Campania promotes and supports the network of services, interventions and opportunities for people with disabilities, with the purpose of ensure their full right to citizenship through the protection of dignity, the establishment of conditions for equal opportunities and non-discrimination, the development of autonomy and self-determination, as well as the protections of their right to education.

The aim of the new commitments and the new regional policies concerning disabilities is to arrange, through a unified system of social services, an effective life project to back disabled individuals all their life long, by focusing on the operational integration of services for the drafting of specific projects that guarantee disabled people equal opportunities for each and every sector of human life.

The strategic priority guidelines are:

The strengthening and the support of home social care services and interventions supplied, which are a great option for the institutionalization and that foster life relations, personal autonomy and participation in socialising and recreational activities for people who do not need hospitalisation. The Regional Law no. 8/2004 set forth further financial resources for the implementation of Integrated Home Care Services rendered in local areas. A remarkable innovation concerning care services for people with disabilities has been presented through the planning resolution no. 679/07 of the FNPS, followed with no. 601/08 by which Regione Campania allocated annual 12 million € for protective caring of frail old people and people with severe disabilities through customized social projects established by Law no. 328/00;

The promotion of qualified semi-residential and residential care services. The resolution of the Regional Executive Board no. 711 of 2004 and its following enactment, established the structural, functional and organizational quality standards that facilities and services addressing people with disabilities, minors and older people must comply with to be authorized for their opening and functioning;

The enhancement of services that promote activities complementary to other interventions (healthcare, educational related, etc.) concerning the rights/needs of social integration/inclusion of people with disabilities in order to prevent and remove uncomfortable situations, and to fight social isolation processes. This is why day educational and social centres (or multitasking social centres for disabled people) financed by additional regional resources concerning the Regional Law no. 11/84 play a key role;

The research for residential solutions for people with severe disabilities without family support (“Dopo di noi”). Resources transferred from State to Regions through the Budget law no. 388/00 allowed to plan the announcement of a first call in 2004 to fund 10 draft projects, and of a second call (Open Notice issued through Management Decree no. 910/07) that fosters the use of confiscated criminal assets for this type of service that should be as soon as possible a basic level of social care;

The promotion of policies concerning pilot and innovative programmes that started with the Resolution no. 679 of 2007. These services fall under the responsibility of Regione that took action to overcome the gaps or to start new practices concerning disability. Through resolution no. 1779 of 05/10/2007 a Memorandum of Understanding with the Italian Library for Blind People “Regina Margherita” of Monza has been signed: it aims at ensuring typhlology advise and Braille or enlarged font text books, as well as digital books for students with visual disabilities of the Campania region. The memorandum, renewed for the school year 2008-2009, too, through resolution no. 1051 of 19/06/2008, allows parents of students with visual disabilities to address the Library to obtain the books, through the school.

Concerning deafness an agreement with the National Body for Mute and Deaf People (ENS) has been approved for the so-called “bridge service”, already available in some other Italian regions, which allow those people with hearing disabilities to address the hearing world through some tools (text messages, DTS, e-mails, video-chat). Please learn more about the service and its access on www.mondoens.it. Finally, a pilot programme has been started for people with disabilities to enjoy the sea and the mountains: it led to the approval of approximately 34 projects presented by private companies concerned with social activities, largely carried out over the summer 2008, throughout the regional territory. This programme launched the implementation of principle that establishes that, concerning planning of policies for disabilities, services allowing comfortable enjoyment, supported by activities traditionally oriented towards the reduction of uneasiness, need to be considered as well;

Concerning mental disability, that unfortunately to date is still stigmatised and unconsciously feared of, since an ad hoc technical coordination to play a catalyser role and function for knowledge and experiences and to remark methods to support delicate and difficult combined treatment processes is still pending, the Regional Administration for Social Policy started shared roads with the Regional Administration for Healthcare, with the purpose of finding new possible ideas of combination between the social and the healthcare sectors. In the meanwhile, the Sector for Social Care, based on some meetings held with parents of autistic children, is drafting an open notice for subsidies for the promotion of services/projects that face the severe individual and family conditions concerning autism;

The framework Agreements on school integration of students with disabilities, started in 2005 as an outcome of the job done by the regional Administration for Social Policies, together with Local Authorities, Local Healthcare Authority, Regional School General Administration and some sector organizations, are other tools to strengthen promotion and support actions for active inclusion processes of disable people. Some Local Authorities already adopted this opportunity thanks to the model template of Agreement described in the 2005 Guidelines.