Care of the elderly persons in the system of social protection in the Republic of Srpska

Abstract

The number of the elderly in the overall population is increasing, which poses a need to seek an adequate model of organizing social care of the elderly. Most of them get social safety through the social welfare system. A functional and sustainable social welfare system requires application of efficient management and technique models based on the theoretical premises of contemporary management. The role and the importance of old people's protection in a social welfare system is becoming a topic of great importance both for theoreticians and the practitioners in the social sector area. This research analyzes the management functions and the roles of managers in running social protection of the elderly in the example of the social welfare system in the Republic of Srpska. A decentralized system, such as the one existing in the Republic of Srpska, brings along a number of organizational problems which points out to a need to apply the theoretical bases of managerial processes. The results obtained via empirical analyses indicate a number of deficiencies and obstacles in the implementation of social protection of the elderly in the social welfare system of the Republic of Srpska which are result of the insufficient and inconsistent application of the basic managerial elements. The obstacles emerging from this analysis indicate that there are chances and opportunities to improve the system and enhance the development of new forms of protection by applying managerial theories.