Systemy wsparcia społecznego w procesie rehabilitacji osób niepełnosprawnych

While working in favour of improvement of handicapped people’s lives, it is significantly important to provide them with sense of security and creating easier conditions to overcome difficult situations in their life. Being a handicapped person is always related to difficult situations and experiences, connected to the actual disability and the fact of not being completely efficient. The necessity to accept the irreversible status quo and actual abilities and capabilities, that these people still have, is one of the conditions for handicapped people to enter their way to develop themselves, and is the basis of their practical adaptation. The system of social support plays an important role in the process of adapting, as it constitutes a stress reduction factor which contributes to the strengthening of resistance in an individual, as well as a factor which contributes to transformation of some potential human resources into those which are practically used in effective and adaptive handling with difficult situations. The support for handicapped people presumes such forms of helping which would indicate the optimum possibility of independent, active and creative life by using the existing and preserved abilities, so that the person could really be and feel a useful and valuable member of society, and so they could take advantage of cultural and civilization assets and be able to participate in creating them.