SOCIJALNA DOBROBIT OSOBA S PROBLEMIMA MENTALNOG ZDRAVLJA
SOCIAL WELFARE OF PERSONS WITH MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS

Summary/Abstract: The dual-continuum model of mental health and mental illness emphasizes that mental health is much more than merely the absence of mental disorder. According to this model, a person living with a mental health problem, or diagnosed with a mental illness, may still experience high levels of positive mental health. Building on this model, mental health policies advocate for placing prevention and the development of community-based services grounded in the concepts of recovery and empowerment at the centre of mental health care. From this perspective, the paper presents research findings on the positive mental health of people with mental illness and examines which sources of formal and informal social support play a significant predictive role in social well-being as one dimension of positive mental health. The aim of the study was to assess the role of quality of life and social support in explaining social well-being among individuals with mental illness who use outpatient psychiatric services. The study included n = 200 adults with mental illness living in the Tuzla Canton (FBiH), all of whom were users of services provided by community mental health centres. The results showed that significant predictors of social well-being among people with mental illness were quality of life, perceived support from significant others, and perceived availability of support from the social network. Together, these predictors accounted for 37,8% of the variance in social well-being. The findings highlight the importance of social support for positive mental health and point to the need for investing in interventions aimed at strengthening the resilience of people experiencing mental health problems an area in which social work plays a particularly important role.

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