Realities of Implementing the Social Adaptation Process of Military Personnel, Discharged Form Service in Bulgaria

The problem of social adaptation of military personnel, discharged from service and the members of their families in the recent years in dynamically changing security environment gives rise to multiple questions in the public space. Since the 1990s and the first decade of the new century the military defense system has been marked by a series of reforms, transformations, organizational and structural changes resulting in a numerous “army” of discharged military personnel. A great number of them and the members of their families live in uncertainty, stress, deprived of basic human values. And although they have high specific qualifications a part of them run into the “army” of the unemployed, and another part deal with underpaid activities that do not require specific qualification. This fact by itself provokes the problem of their social adaptation. There is an impression in the community that after leaving Bulgarian army and the armed forces military personnel (reservists) are thrown “overboard” without any social activity for their adaptation to the new social status or, if there is any, it is too formal and without any significant outcomes. While searching if social adaptation of military in transition to reserve and their families is a myth or reality we focus our scientific research aimed at studying the interactions between various structures and authorities – state, public, nongovernmental, working for the social adaptation of former military personnel and their families within the civil society we take out leading indicators of social and educational characteristics on various levels and propose a comprehensive social adaptation model