According to the Academic Network of European Disability Experts, institutional care continues to consume disproportionate levels of public expenditure, far outweighing that invested in community-based alternatives. There is a trend, albeit slow in many cases, away from such large institutional care arrangements in many countries towards community-based support solutions.
Deinstitutionalisation is about implementing Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities ensuring that individuals with disabilities have all necessary means to exercise choice and control and make all decisions concerning their lives. This can be reached not only closing down large-scale residential institutions, but above all, by putting inclusion and respect of human rights at the centre of all policy actions towards persons with disabilities and their families, from birth to old age.
In order to boost this process, the COFACE Disability platform for the rights of persons with disabilities and their families produced the S.H.I.F.T. guide, which proposes 5 objectives, 15 tools, and 45 actions in the areas of Support, Human rights, Independence, Families and society Transition to achieve meaningful inclusion of persons with disabilities and their families.
For more information and to download the guide, visit the COFACE website