Training disabled people “to be able to live independently while also promoting inclusion” will be the model upon which the government will operate service centres, Disability Parliamentary Secretary Justyne Caruana said earlier today.

Speaking at the newly opened Skills Space, a centre run by Agenzija Sapport in Sliema (near Nazzarenu church), Dr Caruana said the government wanted to help get persons with disability out of their homes and mixing with others, while maintaining services in homes for those who needed it.

The Skills Space houses a number of training rooms in which those with different abilities can be trained on basic living skills at home, from vacuum cleaning and operating a washing machine, to laying the table and preparing daily meals.

Dr Caruana said the concept would be introduced in other centres run by the agency in the coming months, as well as at new centres earmarked for the near future.

The training rooms have two-way mirrored doors which allow families to watch the training being given to loved ones. Dr Caruana said this was important as families often struggled with ‘letting go’ of children with disability and leaving them in the care of professionals.

“We have to understand that when there is a disability in the family, the whole family has a disability. So, there’s a process of helping families come to terms with this,” she said.