Analysis of Existing Employment Models of People With Mental Disabilities in BiH

Abstract

The employment of persons with mental disabilities is a very demanding area of social policy since the realization of the universal right to work is burdened with many challenges. In the first place, these are real problems of adapting persons with mental disabilities to work processes, which arise from limited possibilities of using individual competencies. On the other hand, community stereotypes and prejudices further complicate the inclusion of people with mental disabilities in work processes. Difficulties arise from the practice of not applying existing legal solutions, as well as from the constant lack of institutional capacities that should provide systemic support for the employment of these people. Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a signatory to international documents in this field, established a formal legal framework for employment of people with mental disabilities, which is based on the practice of employment of people with disabilities. Entity laws and funds for professional rehabilitation and employment of people with disabilities form the basis of this framework. The analysis of the employment of people with mental disabilities shows that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in addition to institutional models, there are noninstitutional innovative solutions created by the active participation of user associations.