Current Typology of Social Services in Bulgaria

Abstract

This article makes a systematization of current typology of social services in nowadays Bulgaria, because new Social Services Act entered into force in 2020 and started a reform in the social sphere in the country. The new legislation regulates social services with an innovative concept that interprets them as support activities that can be organized and structured according to the needs of the population. This research was done with a view to clarifying certain aspects in the concept of the new legislation, which would allow it to be interpreted theoretically correctly and, accordingly, to be fully applied in practice. The article offers an analysis of the typology of social services in Bulgaria, which is based on five normative acts, as well as the theory of social work. Various classification criteria format this typology – accessibility, functions, age of users, main groups of activities, term and environment of social service providing. Based on the adopted profiling criteria, the article arranges and reviews the possible types of social services in modern Bulgaria: generally accessible and specialized; preventive, supportive and restorative; for children and for adults; for children and adults with disabilities; for adults in a crisis situation; for information and counseling; community work; therapy and rehabilitation; day care; residential care; assistant support; hourly, half-day, full-day, 24/7; services in a home environment, services in a specialized environment and services that are provided mobile etc. A special place in the group of residential services is occupied by integrated health and social services for residential care, which build their internal own typology according to the type of persons for whom they are intended. The typology of social services made in this article is a kind of theoretical result of the analysis both of sources with scientific literature and of Bulgarian innovative legislation in the social sphere.