Current best practices

• Author: Durbáková, Vanda
• Pages: 102-102

102

10 CURRENT BEST PRACTICES

A national project of health mediators based in marginalised Roma communities, entitled

‘Healthy Communities’ is aimed at improving the access of marginalised Roma communities

to healthcare. It recently employed 264 health mediat ors mostly of Roma origin ( the

mediators mostly come from the communities) who assist people from marginalised Roma

communities with everyday health-related situations. In 2018 , this project introduced an

additional pilot initiative and currently employs eight Roma health mediators working

directly in maternity an d paediatric wards of selected h ospitals in the vicinity of

marginalised Roma communities in eastern Slovakia. They carry out mediation and

awareness-raising work as well as providing psychosocial support for Roma women and

children in hospitals.448

In 2019, regional inspectorates of the Slovak Trade Inspectorate in Košice and Prešov

intensified their insp ection work focused on uncovering racial discrimin ation against the

Roma minority in access to public spaces (e.g. pubs, restaurants). They carried out a

number of checks in this area, based on complaints rec eived from the Centre for Civil and

Human Rights, which has conducted field monitoring on the occurrence of d iscrimination

against Roma in the particular area and identified a number of specific cases. The

inspectorates carried out checks using a method of situation testing and Roma people

facing discrimination participated as testers, enabling the inspectorates to effectively

document potential discrimination. The centre facilitated th e participation of Roma in the

inspection checks on racial discrimination and published a report analysing the work of the

current inspectorate, proposing a number of recommendations to improve its

effectiveness.449

The largest internet e mployment portal in Slovakia, www.profesia.sk started giving

particular attention to discriminati on against persons with health disabilities and came up

with an initiative to support their employment in the society. In 2018, over 2 000 persons

with health disabilities were looking for a job and created CV profiles on the portal. From

1 March 2019, th e company decided to provide free access to all these p rofiles for their

clients that use the portal for searching for new employees. It also actively communicates

with NGOs working with p ersons with disabilities, for instance, to support the preparatio n

of people with disabilities for job interviews.450

448 Additional infomation is available on the website of the project: https://zdraveregiony.eu/.

449 Centre for Civil and Human Rights (2019) Situačný testing ako nástroj preukazovania diksriminácie v

prístupe k tovarom a službám (Situational testing as a tool for uncovering dicrimination in access to goods

and services). Porada pre občianske a udské práva. Available at https://www.poradna-

prava.sk/sk/dokumenty/situacny-testing-ako-nastroj-preukazovania-diskriminacie-v-oblasti-poskytovania-

tovarov-a-sluzieb/.

450 Additional information about the initiative is available at https://www.chartadiverzity.sk/su-zdravotne-

znevyhodneni-na-trhu-prace-skutocne-neziaduci-vyse-desatina-ma-vysokoskolsky-titul/.