Derya YANIK, Minister of Family and Social Services, said, “As of January 2022, at the latest, we will appoint more than 3,000 public personnel with disabilities as the Ministry. We have reserved about 500 staff for our own ministry for our colleagues with disabilities.”

Derya YANIK, Minister of Family and Social Services, attended the opening ceremony of the Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Centre for the persons with disabilities in Bayrampaşa. In his speech, Minister YANIK stated that they have adopted a human-oriented approach from the very beginning in all services such as local, general and transportation, and they have an understanding that puts people and their physical, emotional and spiritual needs at the centre and tries to establish a whole service around this.

Stating that persons with disabilities could not go out on the streets in the past, they could not be taken outside by their families, they were individuals whose care was extremely difficult or were not allowed to socialize in any way, Minister YANIK continued as follows:

 “But we put people at the centre of all our services and works. As a government that believes in the full equality of human beings, we have developed and realized our services to meet all the social basic needs of our citizens with disabilities as people who believe that the persons with disabilities are no different from the persons without disabilities and they just need a little more support. Therefore, today, our citizens with disabilities go to social areas as comfortably as the ones without disabilities, in social areas such as the rehabilitation centre here, and receive treatment and rehabilitation if they need it. If not, they get together with other acquaintances in the social area and with their neighbours”.

Minister YANIK, who also mentioned home care services said: “If they are able to be cared for and supported at home, but need social assistance, we provide home care assistance to our families as they take care of their own children or relatives with disabilities. We support financially. The family-oriented approach is an effective and determining factor in all of our social work models. If we can protect our persons with disabilities with the family, we do. If he is unable to stay with the family, we take him into our institutional care and follow up all his needs there”.

It is Dec 3, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 365 days to us. We work with this determination, this awareness.

Minister YANIK, who also toured the physical therapy and rehabilitation centre, stated that the centre is a well thought out, large and spacious place. Minister YANIK stated that the Ministry, together with local stakeholders and municipalities, is trying to increase good practice examples in the creation, construction and operation of institutions and facilities, and said:

 “In the last 20 years, Türkiye has written a remarkable success story in terms of both legal infrastructure and service delivery in social services. But we act from the idea that 'The enemy of the good is better'. We have never been satisfied with any of the services we provide. We have always considered and worked on the concern of how we can do better, how we can serve our nation better. In this sense, the work we do for our citizens with disabilities stands in a different place. As a matter of fact, in 2010, we provided the services and works we will do for our citizens with disabilities with constitutional guarantees within the scope of positive discrimination. Therefore, we do not consider any of the services we provide for our citizens with disabilities to be sufficient. We are trying to work on all the legal, technical and technological topics that you can think of, so that they can participate in social life, daily life, employment life directly and at least as equally as our other citizens without disabilities. We are trying to implement them one by one, head by head”.

Derya YANIK, Minister of Family and Social Services, said a citizen with disabilities, used the phrase: "Accessibility is not just physical accessibility. Now you have to provide us with digital accessibility" and she added:

 “Therefore, our citizens with disabilities, who were not taken to the streets maybe 15-20 years ago, and thought to be absent because they were not seen on the street, today want digital accessibility from us. Even this alone, I think, is an important example in terms of showing where we took the issue from and where we brought it to. In this sense, December 3 offers us a good reasoning opportunity to verify what we have done and to see where we stand. It is Dec 3, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 365 days to us. We work with this determination, this awareness. I hope from now on, we will continue to offer our citizens with disabilities the opportunities to participate in social life, to produce and to show what they have produced, in the same comfort as our citizens without disabilities.

After the statement, Minister YANIK chatted with young people with Down syndrome.