Venice: General States on Intellectual Disabilities and Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

"Over the years, the Veneto Region has been able to build innovative experimental services provided to 2.496 users (outlined by DGR n. 739/2015, DGR n. 1375/2020 and Dopo di noi); it has developed a network of social farms (which welcomes 568 people with disabilities) and has implemented specific job placements (4.800 people with disabilities). It has guaranteed interventions in the home care sector for 5.850 people with disabilities. Bottom-up initiatives have been developed in the area, thanks to the fundamental contribution of the Third Sector and associations such as Anffas (436 projects spread throughout the region). However, we still face important challenges: the need to be able to create a life project around the person with disabilities that is not fragmented, but unitary, capable of taking into account the health, medical, school, work, sports and integration needs of the person and their family. An organizational and mentality change is necessary.

We are living in an important moment, not only from a legislative point of view, with a very strong regulatory revolution, but also with the social and demographic transformations that we are experiencing, such as low birth rates and an aging population, or with the difficulty of finding specialized personnel to whom turnover must be guaranteed. It is therefore essential to invest more and more in programming and co-design with the system's actors through collective responsibility".

He said so Councillor for Health and Social Affairs Manuela Lanzarin speaking on Friday morning at the M9 in Mestre at the General States on intellectual disabilities and neurodevelopmental disorders. A moment of discussion and sharing to take stock of the situation of people with disabilities, promoted by Anffas national with the collaboration of Anffas Veneto.

The starting point of the reflection was the presentation of a survey on the perception of cognitive disability in Veneto. The need to intervene further at a cultural level emerged, if it is true that 30,12% of the sample interviewed declared feeling uneasy when thinking of a person with a disability, 20,55% fear, 14,10 embarrassment.

After the institutional greetings, an analysis of the rights of people with disabilities was presented, followed by an illustration of the integrated programming and the role of the Region after the approval of Legislative Decree no. 62/24.