Summary After its Independence, Lithuania has witnessed to a considerable number of positive changes in the sphere of integration of the disabled. Still, the current situation of the disabled in Lithuania could be called paradoxical. It has reached a critical point and demands radical solutions. On the one hand, the attention and tolerance of the society towards the disabled have been augmenting; on the other hand, the care for the disabled is becoming declaratory. The main and the greatest obstacle for the integration of the disabled into society is a negative attitude towards them; while, on the contrary, a positive attitude is one of the crucial conditions for succesful integration. Although nowadays media has been showing a greater interest in the life of the disabled, the great part of society regards people with a handicap as those who have to live and work seperately. An attitude of traditional segregation of the disabled is disappearing very slowly. People with mental disability are still welcomed with an especially unfavourable attitude. Thus the object of the survey of the diploma – is an attitude towards people with mental disability; and the aim of this work – is to reveal an expression of an affirmative/optimistic attitude towards people with a mental handicap in daily social interaction. Survey tasks 1. To examine and evaluate the attitude of the workers of the day-care center towards people with mental disability; 2. To reveal how the workers manage to... [to full text]

My thesis work deals with working with the family of a social services client. Social services can be defined as a set of activities to provide assistance to persons in unfavourable social situations. The main purpose of social services is to preserve human dignity and to encourage the given persons to pursue activities that do not protract or worsen their social situation (in other words, to prevent their social exclusion). People may find themselves in a difficult social situation for various reasons (e.g. because of age or poor health status). The most frequent social services users are seniors and persons with disabilities. With regard to the fact that in the future I would like to work in a job treating the above-mentioned target groups, I focused on them in my thesis. I suppose that mutual cooperation between a family and the staff in the social care providing facility can have a positive affect on the client himself. For this reason, I conceived my thesis in a broader context - a family, a social services user and a social services provider. The thesis is divided into a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part describes all the important aspects related to a family, social services and basic characteristics of the Blansko district. In the practical part the target of the thesis was stated. I wanted to learn what problems most families face (not just prior to placing the client to a social services facility, but also in the course of the stay), what their experience with the facility is and whether they are informed about all available social services offered in the area. To compile the thesis quantitative research was applied. I used the method of questioning, the technique of structured interviews with family members of senior home clients and persons with mental disabilities attending a daycare stationary. The thesis could serve as information material on social services not only for families involved in my research, but also for the general public - to provide information about availability of social services for seniors and persons with mental disabilities in the Blansko district in the South Moravian Region.