Refugees, returnees and rehabilitation

Health and social security services are the basic elements which people have the right to ask for from their community. Strong efforts are made to reform the function of this support system all over Bosnia-Hercegovina. With a mutual effort made by Ministry of Health and mental health professionals the Community Mental Health Centres might be an excellent support for people with mental health problems in the society. This is true even for the heavy influx of returnees. The Community Mental Health Centres are expected to handle about 80% of people with mental health problems in the society where people live, or in the new establishments for returnees. However there is a great need for Ministry of Health to design the policy and edict precise rules. The same is true for Ministry of Social Affairs which in co-operation with social workers and other professionals have to reform the Centres for Social Work. However, even if resources are slowly growing, there still seems to lack in communication of the two basic elements, health and social security. Respective ministries in The Federation of Bosnia-Hercegovina need to co-operate and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs in Republika Srpska needs to strong in developing a co-operation between the centres in the field.