Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received Aram Arzumanyan, who was disabled as a result of the 44-day war. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan was also present at the meeting.
The Prime Minister had met Aram’s parents on July 17 in Artashat, who raised the issue of changing Aram Arzumanyan’s disability degree from 1 to 2.
Nikol Pashinyan listened to Aram Arzumanyan, answered his questions, and the minister presented the necessary clarifications regarding the change of degree, informed that Aram was provided with modern high-quality prosthetics, which contributed to his ability to walk.
Prime Minister Pashinyan noted that the government is bringing the policy of providing disability degree to the international standard. “Degree is not a goal, it is a means to solve a problem. The meaning of the policy is as follows. that methodology says, don’t assess whether a person has legs or not, but assess whether they can walk, whether their ability to walk has been restored in any way or not. And we think that policy is correct. Our policy is to restore the person’s functional capacity. We all focus on the degree all the time, but degree is not the goal. The extent to which functionality has been restored should be assessed. We should try to understand the method of providing degree, how effective it is and what needs to be done to make it more effective,” said the Prime Minister.
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Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the Government should do its best to restore the functionality of the person. “We must provide our brothers and children disabled as a result of the war with prosthetics that meet the best international standards.
We do not want you and our other children and brothers to have a disability degree, but to be fully rehabilitated, to be able to get an education, a job, that is, to act freely and to recover your functional capacity. In the cases when this will not be successful, the disability order will be defined by the examination, which will give us an indication that there is a functional problem,” said the Prime Minister.
The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs reported that more than 1,400 servicemen were disabled as a result of the 44-day war.
Prime Minister Pashinyan reminded that the comprehensive health insurance system will be introduced in the republic from next year. “Persons disabled as a result of the 44-day war should be included in this system at the very first stage. Our task is not that you say what a good government, it gave me a first degree disability? Our task is to ensure that you walk normally, run, study, work, live. Please, don’t push us in the direction of providing a disability degree and thinking that we have solved a problem. We need you to have no disability degree. We need to implement such a modern functional prosthetics that will be both comfortable and functional,” said Nikol Pashinyan, adding that the Government will move according to the new methodological standard for disability classification.
During the meeting, Aram Arzumanyan raised other health-related issues. The Prime Minister instructed Minister Mkrtchyan to submit a new draft Government’s decision, as necessary, to solve additional health problems of Aram and other persons with disabilities.
An agreement was reached to organize a new meeting in the coming months, including with the participation of other persons with disabilities, to discuss the problems and further steps to solve them.
INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT OF THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
