Social Services
Social policy is a main concern of the regional authority. The Tyrol offers its citizens a strong social net and extensive welfare services.
The Tyrolean regional authority provides assistance to citizens in need (basic income grant, financial support for persons in residential and nursing homes), rehabilitation programmes, home nursing allowances, mobile services, refugee support and various individual funds.
Mobile services provide nursing care throughout the region. They are designed to enable elderly people to live in their own homes with a good standard of care for as long as possible. The Tyrolean regional authority provides financial support for the local health and welfare districts that provide community healthcare nursing, nursing support, home help, meals on wheels, and nursing appliance loan schemes. In the Tyrol, 83 residential and nursing homes offering accommodation for over 5,400 persons have contacts with the regional authority. The Tyrol also operates a care home advocacy system (in German) to protect the rights and interests of residents.
The Tyrol has services in place to help persons with special needs develop their capabilities and achieve social integration. In support of this goal, the regional authority offers assistance in a variety of forms and administers a number of funds such as the Basic Income Fund, the Fund for War Victims and the Disabled, and the Tiroler Hilfswerk.
Family assistance
The Tyrolean regional authority provides support for individual families (in German) through a variety of programmes, including a fund for families in emergency situations, support for schoolchildren, child care assistance, and the Tyrol Family Pass, which is designed to help families with ideas for leisure activities and concessions for many amenities, stores and restaurants. The authority also subsidises various organisations and programmes including family counselling centres, parent and child centres, and child daycare organisations.
The Tyrol pursues an active policy of affirmative action for women as a contribution to gender equality (in German).
Youth welfare
The regional authority's youth policy has a focus on out-of-school youth work. The Youth Welfare Offices operated at the level of the district authorities offer help, counselling and support for families confronted by a wide range of problems. The service offering covers mobile family care, home care, fostering services, child guidance services, crisis intervention programmes, young people's shelters and street work. Almost all costs of youth welfare are financed by the Tyrolean regional authority and the municipalities themselves. The "Children's and Young People's Advocacy" (in German) is an independent office created by the regional authority to act as an ombudsman in protecting the rights and interests of children and young people in the Tyrol.
Click here for further information on the subject of social services, support programmes and the relevant departments at the Office of the Tyrolean Regional Government (in German).