..........Utena Social Care Home is a care institution with deep historical past. It is known that in 1781 a parochial poorhouse (Lith. “špitolė”) was established in Utena town and over twenty homeless old and disabled people were accommodated in it, in 1853 – eight (register of parishioners). On 31.05.1879 the poorhouse burnt down.  It is not known where the paupers took shelter after the poorhouse building burnt down by fire in the township. In 1909 the poorhouse was re-established. This year is considered to be the beginning of activity of Utena Social Care Home.

 .........In 1920 on the church initiative the nuns started working in the rest-home. In 1930 30 old people lived in it. The rest-home was maintained by St Vincent de Paul’s Society and by the parish. In 1936 the building was renovated, home farm was established.
.........The activities were impeded by the war. In addition to material support, people needed moral support.

 During the World War II the rest-home residents had to hide in parsonage basements, others – in Alanta Manor. After the war the number of paupers greatly increased. The rest-home was nationalized, reorganized into the foster-home where 50   persons lived. The foster-home had its home farm. In early 1985, 210 residents moved from the then foster-home, which later on was renamed into the nursing home, to the new premises. A decade later an annexe was built and 50 more residents moved there.

 .Utena Social Care Home...

.........Utena Social Care Home is an institution under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour of the Republic of Lithuania, the purpose of which is to ensure the long-term (short-term) social care of fully or partially dependent elderly people and adult disabled people who necessarily need permanent intensive care by specialists. Elderly persons with significant special needs and persons with 0-40 % working capacity, special nursing or constant care needs or significant or medium-level special needs due to intellectual disability or mental disorder are accommodated in the care home.            
.........Currently the care home accommodates 260 elderly and disabled people from Utena County and other regions of the country. Employees working in the subdivisions of social work, health care and nursing, service and economy provide services for the residents. Most of the residents live in single and double rooms, equipped with basic furniture, there are rest rooms. The residents are welcome to use hairdresser’s services, laundry, recreation area. The residents eat in a dining-room but they can additionally cook for themselves in small kitchens of the divisions. There is a library, concert hall. By renovating the base of the care home, it is sought to create comfortable living conditions, beautiful and cosy environment for the residents. Here perform local amateurish and professional artistic groups, and meetings with interesting people are arranged. The residents have conditions for sewing, embroidering, knitting, carving, developing other skills.

 ........Much attention is paid to restoration of communication skills of the disabled.  Relations with relatives, neighbours are maintained. The residents celebrate their anniversaries, thematic evenings, activities of common interest groups are organized.  The residents’ needs are changing: next to daily living needs, spiritual and communicational needs are becoming more and more important. Many residents are an example to others by their active lifestyle, artistic, creative self-expression. The folk music group, singers’ group, literati society and the newspaper “Mūsų namai” (Our Home), that has been published for already second decade, help to translate the residents’ pursuits into action. Relations with the community of the town and region are enhanced by traditional Family Reunions, Poetry Autumns organized together with the literati club ‘Verdenė’, Kaziukas Fair, which is also visited by distant

From 1996 to 2009 the foundation ‘Help Utenos Pensionatas’ common with Dutch care institutions actively operated. Much welfare assistance was received by Utena from Holland; exchange of employees’ delegations was carried out.  In 1997 the modern St Vincent de Paul Chapel was established for the funds donated by the Dutch. Each Sunday and during major religious holidays the Holy Mass is celebrated in it. 
 

 In the St Vincent de Paul Chapel

..........The most important thing in a large family is to be as closer to each other as possible especially when a person approaches the autumn of life, the eventing of being. So an informal objective of our care home is to instil in each resident a belief that the evening of life brings its own light which is usually very bright.