Vaikų aukų teisinės ir socialinės apsaugos struktūrinių trūkumų šalinimo galimybės Lietuvoje

The article presents an analysis of abused child social and legal protection. Physical, sexual or psychological abuse against children provides an impulse for the interaction among responsible institutions. This interaction is a complexphenomenon that involves diverse legal, social andprivate institutions. The clash of interests between statė andfamily institutions responsible for child protection places a child in a problematic position. When the needs of child are disregarded, institutional interaction may cause system abuse. The damage of inappropriate help of institutions (here one has in mind not only formai institutions, but also different projects, programs) upon a child is rather differently called, namely: the institutional abuse, program abuse, repeated abuse, system abuse. The essential difference is that the system abuse touches not one child, but a lot of children as well as most freąuently it is related to the policy of childhood protection. Such a process of childprotection ends to the child’s disadvantage and creates an incentive for an abuser to exploit a child more intensively. The article is based on the data from legal document analysis and the survey of child’s rights protection experts. The survey was carried out in August-September, 2001. The ąuestionnaire includes 46 ąuestions, 19 of yvhich are open-ended. The Markei and Opinion Research Centre "Vilmorus" selected experts throughout Lithuania . The totai of 198 experts comes from the Children’s Rights Protection Agency, the police, the Prosecutor’s Office, Courts of law, Psychological support services, the Institute of Medical Expertise and medical institutions of Lithuania.[...].Nėra panacėjos, kaip išvengti ir kaip apsaugoti žmogų, patyrusį prievartą, kad būtų Išvengta ne tik jos pasikartojimo, bet ir su ja susijusių padarinių. Netinkamai organizuota pagalba, ypač vaikams aukoms, gali ne tik nesustabdyti prievartos, bet dar labiau ją paskatinti, turėti neigiamų padarinių visam žmogaus gyvenimui. Mokslinėje literatūroje netinkamai organizuota juridinė ir socialinė apsauga vadinama antrine prievarta, reviktimizacija, institucine ar sistemos prievarta. Šio straipsnio tikslas -įvardyti egzistuojančią sistemos prievartos prieš vaikus aukas problemą Lietuvoje, nurodyti teisinės ir socialinės apsaugos struktūrinius trūkumus ir jų šalinimo galimybes. Darbas paremtas 2001 m. antrame pusmetyje Visuomenės nuomonės ir rinkos tyrimo centro „Vilmorus" atlikta vaiko teisių apsaugos ekspertų apklausa, teisinių ir nacionalinių dokumentų bei literatūros analize. Vaiko teisių apsaugos ekspertas - specialistas, dirbantis praktinį darbą su prievartą patyrusiu vaiku. Iš viso buvo apklausti 198 ekspertai, atstovavę teismo, prokuratūros, policijos, vaiko teisių apsaugos Ir psichologinėms tarnyboms, teismo medicinos institutui visose Lietuvos apskrityse. Straipsni sudaro dvi pagrindinės dalys. Pirmoje dalyje nagrinėjama sistemos prievarta, kuri įvardijama kaip teisinės ir socialinės valko aukos apsaugos disfunkcija. Antrojoje dalyje analizuojama vaiko aukos apsaugos struktūriniai trukdžiai. Straipsnio pabaigoje pateikiama išvadinę diskusija, kurioje persipina teoretikų ir vaiko teisių apsaugos ekspertų nuomonės

SENYVO AMŽIAUS ASMENŲ SOCIALINIŲ PASLAUGŲ PRIEINAMUMO NAMUOSE PATIRTYS

Potential and realised accessibility of older people to care at home services is discussed in the article. The concept of accessibility is discussed with presentation of empirical research that used qualitative research methodology. The experiences of care at home users and providers were analysed. Seven experts care providers and eleven care users participated in focus groups. The dissemination of information, sociocultural norms with domination of family care giving, financial possibilities of older people to buy services and issues of organization of care at home services are discussed as factors that amend accessibility of older people to care at home services and restrict it. KEY WORDS: care at home services, older people, accessibility to services

Problematisation of Parental Alcohol Abuse Related Harm to Children: The Results of Professionals’ Response

Problematisations as taken-for-granted “truths” practices making it crucial to look at them critically and to draw attention to any potentially harmful consequences they may have. The main aim of this article is to examine how the issue of parental alcohol’s harm to children is problematised in the child protection and support processes in Lithuania. Data from 20 semistructured interviews with key child welfare and protection experts were analysed using Bacchi’s problematisation approach strategy. Professionals think that parental intoxication is damaging to children, and because of the issues they perceive, most of their work is focused on measures to enhance parental behaviour. This approach to the problem distances professionals from the harm that children are experiencing. It is typical to remove children from intoxicated parents and re-unite them once the parents sober up. Professionals rely on their own moral principles and ideals, particularly the desire to maintain “family unity”. Long-term harm develops when children who need support are undervalued and neglected. Because child welfare practices focus on a small portion of the problems, the harm to the children’s personalities and development is not adequately addressed. Analyses showed that the problematisation of parental alcohol abuse-related harm to children by professionals impacts the presumed result, which is that children are the “visible but unprotected victims”. The professional field of problematisation of alcohol’s harm to children brought on by parental alcohol misuse must consider crucial elements such as understanding childhood trauma and its long-term effects on child development, knowing how to respond to it when it occurs, and understanding how to avoid harmful long-term consequences

Alkoholio kontrolės politikos tikslo apibrėžties ir mažmeninės prekybos licencijavimo problematika Lietuvoje.

The purpose of this article is to identify interference that prevents to manage alcohol-related harm. Article analyses the purpose of alcohol control policy and it‘s connection with alcohol-related harm, and alcohol retail licensing. Article is based on scientific literature, law acts and statistical data. The main conclusion is that the definition of alcohol control policy purpose is not clear and the meaning of it is not connected with reduction of alcohol-related harm. It is necessary to revise and redefine the purpose by relating it with criminality prevention, safety in neighbourhoods and roads, reduction of social harm in private sphere. Now, the priority is given to the technical regulation of retail and production. Alcohol control policy obliges local authorities to pursue only the administrative function – retail licensing. Local governments also have powers to form the alcohol control policy, for example, limit the time and places of selling alcohol. This function is recommendatory, so only a few local governments use it. City councils are not obliged to pursue the alcohol control policy and it‘s monitoring. Regulation of retail licensing is related with technical requirements for the quality and safety of alcohol. It‘s also connected with requirements for selling surroundings and debts for budgets of national and local governments. Whether the license will be suspended or abolished depends on violation of technical requirements and conditions that are written in license. It is not connected with criminality, noise or other alcohol-related harm. Prohibition of selling liquor for under-age and intoxicated persons is connected with reduction of alcohol-related harm, but sanctions are only for selling alcohol to under-age persons. Licensing is not used enough to discipline the sellers. More powers must be given to police in order to make bigger influence on retail licensing process because now the police is allowed to control only the criminality and the violation of public order that is made by intoxicated persons. It also controls liquor selling to under-age persons but it has no powers in retail licensing.Straipsnyje, remiantis mokslinės literatūros, teisės aktų bei antrinių statistinių duomenimų analize kritiškai vertina tai, kaip alkoholio kontrolės politikos tikslas susietas su alkoholio keliama žala, kaip mažmeninė prekyba alkoholiu licencijuojama siekiant mažinti prekybos alkoholiniais gėrimais tvarkos pažeidimus ir alkoholio vartojimo keliamą žalą. Atliekant tyrimą, daromos išvados, jog alkoholio kontrolės tikslas ir principai Lietuvoje turi būti iš esmės išnagrinėti ir naujai apibrėžti, susiejant juos su nusikalstamumo prevencija, nesaugumo mažinimu kaimynystėse ir keliuose, socialinės žalos mažinimu privačioje erdvėje. Taikydamos nacionalinę alkoholio kontrolės politiką, savivaldos institucijos turi vykdyti tik administracinę funkciją – mažmeninės alkoholio prekybos licencijavimą, rekomenduojamo pobūdžio alkoholio kontrolės politikos formavimas vykdomas pavienėse savivaldybėse. Licencijos kaip priemonė mažinti alkoholio keliamą žalą visiškai nepanaudojamos, nes nėra ribojamas jų skaičius, o sankcijos, susijusios su licencijomis, per menkai susietos su piktnaudžiavimo alkoholiu keliama žala

II kasmetinė nacionalinė socialinės politikos konferencija „Gyvenimo kelias ir jo krizės: kaip (ar) veikia Lietuvos socialinė politika?“

2022 m. spalio 14 d. Vilniaus universitete vyko II kasmetinė nacionalinė socialinės politikos konferencija „Gyvenimo kelias ir jo krizės: kaip (ar) veikia Lietuvos socialinė politika?“Universiteto g. 3, Vilniushttps://youtu.be/oBGfbjJijPY2022 m. spalio 14 d. Vilniaus universitete vyko II kasmetinė nacionalinė socialinės politikos konferencija „Gyvenimo kelias ir jo krizės: kaip (ar) veikia Lietuvos socialinė politika?“Universiteto g. 3, Vilniushttps://youtu.be/oBGfbjJijP

Impact of the WHO “best buys” for alcohol policy on consumption and health in the Baltic countries and Poland 2000–2020

Funding Information: Funding: Research reported in this publication was in part supported by the (U.S.) National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant number 1R01AA028224 . This research was conducted as part of the project ‘Evaluation of the impact of alcohol control policies on morbidity and mortality in Lithuania and other Baltic states’ and we would like to thank the whole team for their input to wider discussions in generating the research reported in this paper. Content is the responsibility of the authors and does not reflect official positions of the NIAAA or the NIH. Publisher Copyright: © 2023Alcohol use is a major risk factor for burden of disease. This narrative review aims to document the effects of major alcohol control policies, in particular taxation increases and availability restrictions in the three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) between 2000 and 2020. These measures have been successful in curbing alcohol sales, in general without increasing consumption of alcoholic beverages from unrecorded sources; although for more recent changes this may have been partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, findings from time-series analyses suggest improved health, measured as reductions in all-cause and alcohol-attributable mortality, as well as narrowing absolute mortality inequalities between lower and higher educated groups. For most outcomes, there were sex differences observed, with alcohol control policies more strongly affecting males. In contrast to this successful path, alcohol control policies were mostly dismantled in the neighbouring country of Poland, resulting in a rising death toll due to liver cirrhosis and other alcohol-attributable deaths. The natural experiment in this region of high-income European countries with high consumption levels highlights the importance of effective alcohol control policies for improving population health.Peer reviewe

Representation of poverty in Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian documentary films of the post-communist period

This article examines the representation of poor families in three documentary films from the Baltic region, produced after the fall of state socialism: Ewa Borzęcka's 13 or Trzynastka/Thirteen (1996, Poland), Marat Sargsyan's Tėvas/Father (2012, Lithuania) and Andris Gauja's Ģimenes lietas/Family Instinct (2010, Latvia). Each film does so by focusing on a family which does not fit the dominant notion of a normal family and instead comes across as a ‘pathological’ family. Our argument is that by foregrounding such a connection the filmmakers play down the state's responsibility for ensuring a decent standard of living for all citizens

Elimination of structural limitationsof legal and social protection of child-victim in Lithuania

There is no panacea for avoiding violence or protecting the victims of violence not only from its recurrence but also the related after-effects. An improperly organised support, especially for child victims, may not only fail to stop violence but also exacerbate it and result in life-long negative consequences. In the academic literature, an unduly organised legal and social protection is referred to as the secondary violence, re-victimisation, and institutional or systemic violence. This article aims to describe the existing problem of systemic violence against children in Lithuania and identify the structural flaws in the legal and social protection, as well as discuss the possibilities of their elimination. The study is based on the survey of children’s rights experts performed by public opinion research centre Villmorus in 2001, as well as the analysis of legal and national documents and literature. The children’s rights experts are specialists working with children who experienced violence. 198 experts from all around Lithuania were surveyed, representing the courts, the prosecutor’s office, the police, children’s rights protection and psychological services, as well as the Institute of Forensics. The article consists of two main parts. The first part examines systemic violence, which is understood as a dysfunction in the legal and social protection of child victims. The second part analyses the structural impediments in the protection of child victims. The article concludes with a discussion, which integrates the opinions of theoreticians and children’s rights experts

Defining concepts of the use of alcohol and alcohol dependence : the aspect of social inclusion

Žalingas alkoholio vartojimas yra didelė socialinė problema, ypač Europoje. Kada alkoholio vartojimas pasidaro žalingas, kada išsivysto alkoholinė priklausomybė, yra pagrindinis tyrimo klausimas. Straipsnio tikslas – išanalizuoti alkoholio vartojimo ir priklausomybės nuo alkoholio nustatymo metodus, įvertinant šių metodų dėmesį socialinei dimensijai.1 Straipsnis remiasi literatūros analize. Alkoholio vartojimo apibrėžtys iš dalies siejamos su socialumo charakteristikomis (kultūrinis, socialinės integracijos vaidmuo), žala vartojančiajam ir aplinkiniams (rizikingas, probleminis, besaikis piktnaudžiavimas alkoholiu, alkoholizmas). Teoriniai alkoholio vartojimo debatai vyksta binarinėje perspektyvoje: saikingas – nesaikingas, rizikingas – nerizikingas, probleminis – neprobleminis, sveikas – nesveikas. Demarkacijos linija, skirianti priešingas pozicijas, nėra aiški. Tačiau alkoholio vartojimo apibrėžtyse vyrauja kiekybės matmuo, siejamas su išgerto alkoholio kiekiu. Nustatyta, kad pagrindiniai alkoholio vartojimo ir priklausomybės nuo alkoholio nustatymo metodai atstovauja biomedicininiam požiūriui, kai svarbiausias dėmesys skiriamas asmens psichofiziologinei sveikatai, o socialinė dimensija paliečiama tik fragmentiškai. Tokiame kontekste iškyla problema apibrėžiant priklausomybę kaip ligos procesą su priežastiniais mechanizmais ir socialinėmis pasekmėmis. Daug debatų ir vilčių sprendžiant šią problemą kilo Amerikos psichiatrų asociacijai aprobavus „Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5“, kuriame panaikinta diagnostinė skirtis tarp piktnaudžiavimo alkoholiu ir priklausomybės nuo alkoholio. Tarptautinės ligų klasifikacijos 11 versijos kūrėjams rekomenduojama atkreipti dėmesį į J. C. Wakefieldo ir M. F. Schmitzo (2014) įžvalgą apie disfunkcinę žalą, t. y., kad, diagnozuojant alkoholio vartojimo sutrikimus, jie būtų diagnozuojami pasireiškus ne mažiau kaip vienam disfunkciniam ir ne mažiau kaip vienam žalos kintamajam, nes tai didina alkoholio vartojimo sutrikimų matavimo validumą ir padidina skirtumą tarp vartojimo sutrikimų ir probleminio alkoholio vartojimo. Akcentuota alkoholizmo socialinė dimensija analizės kryptį turėtų fokusuoti ne tiek į pačią ligą, kiek į alkoholio vartojimą ir jo žalą pirminiams socialiniams ryšiams (šeimai) ir platesnei bendruomenei. Geriantysis, jo artimieji, bendruomenė ir vyriausybė žalos, kurią sukelia alkoholio vartojimo sutrikimą turintis asmuo, akivaizdoje turi permąstyti savo atsakomybę pilietine, bendruomenine, kultūrine, teisine ir ekonomine prasme.The harmful use of alcohol is an important social problem, especially in Europe. Focusing on the definitions and tools of evaluating the use of alcohol and alcohol dependence, the article asks when the use of alcohol can be characterised as harmful and when alcohol dependence begins. It also attempts to include social dimension into these definitions and to evaluate the assessment tools for the use of alcohol and alcohol dependence. The author related the definitions of the use of alcohol (heavy drinking, harmful use, hazardous use, problem drinking and excessive drinking, alcohol dependence or alcohol abuse) to such aspects of social context as the role of social integration and social harm due to the use of alcohol. The use of alcohol is often debated by drawing the binary combinations such as low risk vs. high risk drinking, problem vs. non–problem drinking, healthy vs. unhealthy drinking. The demarcation line between these opposites is rather unclear. While the use of alcohol is defined by qualitative methods based on the quantity of the alcohol used, the evaluation methods of the use of alcohol and alcohol dependence are associated with biomedical perspective that focuses on the person’s psychophysical health and almost omits social dimension. Therefore, it becomes difficult to evaluate the dynamics of alcohol dependence with its causes and social consequences. The author argues that definitions of the use of alcohol and alcohol dependence should include social dimension that would enable us to move beyond the opposites and to identify social and cultural norms that promote or limit the use of alcohol. Social dimension also allows us to identify the consequences of drinking, particularly its harmful impact on a family, primary social ties and broader society. Thus, social parameters should be included in the evaluation of diagnostic tools for the use of alcohol and alcohol dependence