Dobrich

Dobrich is experiencing an increasing share of elderly in the total resident population. This trend is driven by both negative migration flows, mostly concerning people aged 20 to 39 years old, and a shrinking population, due to a negative natural population growth (which dates back to the mid ’80s). Older workers’ employability, adaptability and entrepreneurship are deemed to be the main policy challenges. The shortage of trained and qualified staff, coupled with lack of information and data on ageing people’ needs, prevent the coordination of efforts between public and private stakeholders to effectively cope with the problems of ageing. National employment policies have still a very limited impact at the local level. Bureaucratic reasons have slowed down the development and implementation of the Municipal Development Plan 2007-2013 devoted to the issues raised by the ageing population. The municipality of Dobrich has a good policy experience in care and social services provision for the elderly. The “Old people house”, with a capacity of 115 people, provides social services to the elderly, helping them with daily activities (free time and socialisation, eating, medical care); the “Project for dignified life” provides 12 social assistants and 11 domestic assistants to care for 40 lonely people. Nine “Retired people’s clubs” are operating, but the infrastructure needs to be improved. The Dobrich municipality also plans to establish a network of social centres for ageing people. The city’s main policy expectations concern sharing experiences and best practices on the development of policies and strategies to tackle the problems of demographic ageing; improving the municipality’s capacity to collect and analyze data on elderly people needs; implementing policies and mobilizing stakeholders through the creation of a detailed database. The local action plan is expected to coordinate and consolidate efforts for the over 45 year olds.