Included in society (2003-2004)

Supported by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities

4 European NGOs, Mental Health Europe, Autism Europe, Inclusion Europe, Mental Disability Advocacy Programme, set up a consortium and developed a EU project on de-institutionalisation of disabled people. The objective was to make the most invisible group of disabled people visible and to highlight the human right abuses that occur inside institutions. The project also aimed to set out recommendations on how sustainable community-based services can be developed, according to the needs of those disabled person. and

The project a fourfold objective:

• Collect quantitative information about as many large residential institutions in Europe as possible
• Establish links between service characteristics and quality of life of the residents
• Highlight the human rights abuses and infringements of personal freedoms that occur inside institutions
• Develop political recommendations at European, national and local level

The core group was enlarged with representatives from European Disability Forum (EDF), the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with a Disability (EASPD), the Association for Research and Training on Integration in Europe (Association de Recherche et de Formation sur l'Insertion en Europe (ARFIE)) and Tizard Centre.

The project was coordinated by Inclusion Europe.

Each partner organisation had a research assistant who provided information collected from member organisations. Peter Kampman and Mary van Dievel did the research work on behalf of MHE.

To download the final report and to find out more about the project : http://www.community-living.info  

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