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Social services |
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Individual and community well-being
is very much influenced by the state's social welfare performance,
which in turn, varies in different parts of the North. Two welfare
regimes dominate in the North. In accordance with the Esping-Andersen
(1990) classification, they are: the liberal regime and the social
democratic regime. The liberal regime is dominated by means-tested
benefits, which include modest universal cash transfers and some
social insurance schemes. This regime is implemented in the USA
and Canada. The social democratic regime provides many universal
benefits as social rights based on citizenship and are financed
by taxes. Benefits are relatively high, and the welfare state itself
is extensive as in Scandinavia. Russia's present regime (as Granberg
and Riabova argue in "Social Policy and the Russian North")
can be described as "liberal, or even less" (Granberg
& Riabova, 1998). |
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Presently, it is a common feature
of all welfare regimes, that the state's engagement in people's
welfare is being reduced via a reduction of social welfare expenditures
and benefits. Social policy reforms, be it a gradual reformation
of the Scandinavian welfare state, swift and profound reforms of
the welfare system in Russia, or social service reforms in Canada,
are much about the devolution of power over service planning with
local and regional levels taking more responsibility (Riabova L.,
1998; Browne A., 1999). This devolution often results in down loading
the responsibilities without adequate financial resources or personnel
in place. Today, the main barriers in service delivery to the remote
Northern communities are: reduced geographical accessibility, a
limited range of services, and a limited number of personnel delivering
services. |
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In Canada, as A. Browne (1999) reports,
in northern and rural regions, family members, community nurses,
family physicians and social service workers are left to cope with
the acute health problems that people experience when they are either
not cared for in hospitals or are discharged early. Unreasonable
demands are then placed on the already overburdened community-based
health services. |
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In the Russian North, the retreat
of the state from the social sphere and the general cutback of social
expenses in the country in early 90s, led to great reductions in
the quantity and quality of social services. Peripheral remote settlements
have suffered most of all. In some cases, medical services and kindergartens
are lacking or simply closed, and many schools do not have a complete
staff of teachers. In the Russian North, where the distances between
towns are great, the availability or absence of transport connections
between the settlements, determines to a large extent the availability
of social services and consequently, the well-being of the inhabitants
(Riabova, 1998; Gutsol & Riabova, forthcoming). |
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In the Murmansk region, in remote
settlements limited means of communication include air transport
and occasional road and water transport for a limited period. TV
channels are not available and newspapers come once a week at best.
The air connection is not regular and the winter roads often are
cut because of weather conditions. Thus, it is difficult to obtain
medical services that cannot be provided in the local communities.
Transport difficulties also create shortages of food products and
other necessary goods. Such isolation makes both a traditional subsistence
economy and indigenous medicine, important for survival. |
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One of the most acute problems is
the upbringing and education of children away from their families,
in special schools (so-called internats) located in bigger settlements.
This way of organizing education is most often practiced in the
indigenous settlements of the Russian North, where parents are working
outside of settlements in the tundra, and this has had serious consequences
for indigenous family stability, often resulting in a loss of ties
between generations. |
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Throughout the North, recognizing
and incorporating native traditions, culture, and values into northern
community social service programs is important in order to make
them more effective in meeting the needs of the community. |
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Chapter 