Health protection, and especially mental health protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina have very long tradition. A first record found on treatments of mental patients originates from 13th century. Use of alcohol is old as man kind, and in the culture of nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina is present tradition of "Common" drinking, which means that drinking is a part of everyday life, more in the rural than in urban environments. Debut of organize treatment of alcohol addictors in our country is situated in the early sixties. Since that, and until the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, Institute for alcoholism and substance abuse, has passed trough different developmental phases in organizational, as well in professional sense, with the trend of continuous performance improvement. This institution was unique in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and part of system consisted of organized psychiatric services. During one year average number of services was around 5,000 and 1,500 persons went trough complex social and psychiatric treatment with rehabilitation.

Health and social security services are the basic elements which people have the right to ask for from their community. Strong efforts are made to reform the function of this support system all over Bosnia-Hercegovina. With a mutual effort made by Ministry of Health and mental health professionals the Community Mental Health Centres might be an excellent support for people with mental health problems in the society. This is true even for the heavy influx of returnees. The Community Mental Health Centres are expected to handle about 80% of people with mental health problems in the society where people live, or in the new establishments for returnees. However there is a great need for Ministry of Health to design the policy and edict precise rules. The same is true for Ministry of Social Affairs which in co-operation with social workers and other professionals have to reform the Centres for Social Work. However, even if resources are slowly growing, there still seems to lack in communication of the two basic elements, health and social security. Respective ministries in The Federation of Bosnia-Hercegovina need to co-operate and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs in Republika Srpska needs to strong in developing a co-operation between the centres in the field.

Ebu Ali Husein Ibn Ali Ibn Sina (or Avicenna) was primarily a philosopher with amusing knowledge, who dealt in all aspects of art of medicine, astronomer, poet, musician and psychologist. This giant with an encyclopedic knowledge has dealt in almost all scientific branches or praxis with the great success. Numerous statements of his have been cornerstone of many sciences for centuries; and some of them are (in the era of computers and Internet) still current. The best known treatise on medicine of his is El-Kanun, consisting of five volumes, wherein all medical achievements (including psychology, psychiatry and neurology) of that period were described clearly. In his psychology, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) analyses the essence of human soul, mind, psychical streams, intellectum, dreams and prophecy, man's desires etc. in details. It is unnecessary to point out how much these items are actual in the contemporary psychology. Ibn al-Nefis has described systematically the symptoms and recovery of "head sick" (including headaches, cerebral sick like cranitis, letargy, coma, demency, melancholy, insomnia, nightmares, epilepsy, appoplexy, paralysis, spasm and many others) in his Mujez al-Kanun, that is synopsis of Ibn Sina Kanun. We need much time to see magnificance of this philosopher, that is best known as the great one among the physicians. His writings could be found in whole Bosnia, but there were many few that would study him and his works. It is out task to enable the future generations not only to know those works exist, but, also, to realize the essence of this marvelous genius; because there are very few people that can be compared to him.