Home for the Aged and Invalid

(dom-internat), a social welfare institution in the USSR for the care of the aged and of invalids not requiring hospitalization but without relatives who are legally obliged to support them. There are general homes and homes for particular problems, such as psychoneurosis. The first basic type admits the aged and invalids; it accepts both invalids (group 1 [completely disabled or temporarily incapacitated but in need of prolonged and constant care] and group 2 [less in need of care but unable to engage in any labor, in order not to aggravate their condition]) over 45 years of age and the elderly (men over 60 and women over 55). The second basic type is for invalids only; it admits group 1 and group 2 invalids from 18 to 45 years of age. Admission priority is given to disabled veterans of the Great Patriotic War and members of the families of servicemen who were killed during the war. The aged and the invalids in the homes are completely provided for by the state; pensioners are paid part of their pensions (a single disabled war veteran receives 25 percent of his pension).

Those living in the homes may work if a doctor recommends work as a therapeutic measure. In this case the worker receives one-half the value of his work, the remainder going to the improvement of the cultural and material services of the home.

Homes for the aged and invalid are a responsibility of the ministries of social welfare of the Union republics, which also supervise and manage interkolkhoz homes for the aged and the disabled (the latter operating on the kolkhoz budgets). Since 1969 boarding houses have appeared for elderly persons who are able to pay for their services and for those elderly whose children (or others who are legally bound to support them) are not in a position to look after them properly at home but are able to pay for their support in a boarding house. From 1960 to 1970 the number of homes for the aged and invalid and the number of places in them rose significantly; for example, in 1970 there were 854 of these homes (with 175,000 places) in the RSFSR. Directives of the Twenty-fourth Congress of the CPSU (1971) provide for further expansion of the network of homes for the aged and invalid.