Global-Report-Living-Colour-dr2-2

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Inclusive Communities = Stronger Communities GLOBAL REPORT ON ARTICLE 19: THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE INCLUDED IN THE COMMUNITY 85 disabilities, arguments are still advanced to justify institutionalizing people. Typically, these arguments include notions that institutions provide better care or ensure better health, that people are happier “with their own kind”, or that people with “severe” disabilities, complex health or behavioural issues cannot be supported in community. The reality however, is that research consistently demonstrates the benefits of community living and the harmful effects of institutionalization. Studies conducted over the past 50 years in North America, Europe and New Zealand have documented the following outcomes for people with disabilities in the community as compared to institution life: • Maintained or improved health and health care • Increased independence and adaptive skills • Decreases/elimination of challenging behaviour • Increased family involvement and support (families overwhelmingly support community living following institution closures, even if they had previously opposed it) Photo: Ulrich Eigner • The benefits and improvement in the quality of life for people leaving institutions continue to outweigh the costs • Successful transitions to community by individuals with the most complex needs (people with severe disability, challenging behaviour, medical issues, or advanced age) While we witness Norway, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Sweden, the United States, and Canada who
86 Inclusive Communities = Stronger Communities GLOBAL REPORT ON ARTICLE 19: THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE INCLUDED IN THE COMMUNITY had previously relied on institutions as a residential option, closing or in the process of closing institutional facilities, there are other countries that are in the process of building (new) institutions and/or refurbishing existing facilities e.g. In Hungary, “Despite having a 30-year strategy to shut institutions and move people with disabilities into the community, the Hungarian government will build new 50-bed institutions – which it euphemistically calls “living centres” – instead of integrating and supporting people into the community.” 7 Even in those countries that have a history of successful closures (i.e. Canada, the USA, the UK) we are seeing continued investment in institutional models of support. There are also countries, particularly low income countries in Africa, in which the traditional concept of institutions does not exist. In these countries however, institutions do not exist not because other more appropriate options are provided, but rather because families were (and are still being) left to struggle on their own to raise and support their family member with little or no outside support or assistance. Sometimes families who are desperate for any kind of support will suggest the creation of institutions because they cannot imagine any other options. In Colombia families face a stark choice. They can give up custody of their son or daughter and in exchange a bed in a residential institution with three meals a day and some daytime activities will be provided. The one residential institution we visited in Bogota was stark, with little activity and no real personalization or sense of personal space or privacy. Should the family not want the institutional option, there are few services for children and virtually none for adults unless the family has the financial resources
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