Getting people out of institutions is a human rights obligation. The EU has done a lot in the 10 past years to achieve this, but there is still a long way to go: This is what members of the European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care (EEG) have stressed in their joint statement in the context of the “Towards Inclusion” conference today. According to the statement, “over 1 million people in the EU still live in institutions, which segregate them from society and deny them control over their lives. Many more are at risk of being institutionalised” because the right support in the community is not available.
The statement also points out what needs to be done by the EU to drive deinstitutionalisation forward. The EU should e.g. make sure
- that member states do not use EU money for institutions. It should be used for family- and community-based support instead.
- that the reforms the EU funds actively involve the people concerned
- that these reforms go hand in hand with other investments, for example into access to housing or education
Further reading
Report on deinstitutionalisation
Learn about Inclusion Europe’s work on deinstitutionalisation
Read our articles about the topic
