Repositioning Risk and Resilience: Improving the Lives of Children and Adults with Mental Health Problems in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

ABSTRACT

The repositioning of risk and resilience within the social work and mental health agenda is examined in this paper through a consideration of the social exclusion of vulnerable children and adults living in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA). There is a pressing need in this region for the development of better conceptions and cultural adaptations of risk and resilience models. An important task is spelling out the implications for effective prevention and intervention programs, and for practitioners and service users in terms of an inclusive, person-centred, and emancipatory practice. The societies of the EECA region may be understood as comprising a distinctive form of risk society, distinguished from Western counterparts by their adverse risk levels, and by their emancipatory potential. Strategies based on user inclusion and participatory action require to be fashioned, along with the development of the social work profession, to facilitate the empowerment of users in the EECA region.

KEYWORDS:

• Risk
• Resilience
• Risk Society
• Mental Health
• Eastern Europe
• Central Asia

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of user groups in the EECA region and particularly Sergey Morozov, in whose memory this paper is dedicated.