President of the Republic Meets with Delegation of Social Workers

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović received a delegation of social workers representing various social work institutions in the Republic of Croatia. Attending the meeting with the President of the Republic were the president of the “Hrvatska udruga socijalnih radnika” and director of the “Dom za starije osobe Centar” in Zagreb Štefica Karačić, professor at the Study Center for Social Work of the Faculty of Law in Zagreb Ana Opačić, director of the “Centar za socijalnu skrb Zagreb” Tatjana Štritof, director of the development of national programs of SOS Children’s Village Croatia Gordana Daniel, and the director of the “Centar za odgoj and obrazovanje Tuškanac” Meri Gatin.

The meeting addressed the issue of the status of social workers as well as the importance of their work in society since activities extend beyond the system of social care and overlap a number of other services at the national and local levels. According to the participants of the meeting, the system of social care in Croatia is excessively centralized and should be modified or decentralized in order to be more efficient. Social workers have many expectations from new social work legislation, but they also hope to receive stronger support for their profession from State institutions.