Housing & Mental Health- Best Practices in Australia?

The paper discusses evidence from international research and the Australian literature about approaches and models of housing for consumers with psychiatric disability in the context of deinstitutionalisation and closure of psychiatric institutions Although there are only limited Australian examples documented in the literature, there is substantial European and North American literature that documents good practice and the successes and failures of alternative accommodation initiatives. The primary question for this paper is not whether any one ‘best practice ’ can be identified for Australian conditions but what can be learned from the successes or failures of international approaches and their likely transferability to Australian contexts. It is a central contention that it is difficult to identify any one approach that can be held up as a single ‘best practice ’ due to the diversity of preferences and needs of consumers and to the broad range of opinions of all those involved – consumers, their families and their institutional and community based service providers. This inevitable range of views about suitable care makes it is essential to evaluate all accommodation models in terms of adequacy, humanity and cost effectiveness – these appearing to be key variables