Deinstitutionalisation in Intellectual Disabilities

Purpose of the review As the process of large scale hospital closure comes to an end in England and continues steadily in US, Australia and Ireland, it is just beginning in many other countries within Europe and still a rather vague hope in countries such as Taiwan. This review explores recent literature on deinstitutionalisation and intellectual disabilities and focuses on papers published in academic journals mainly during 2006. Recent findings Work on deinstitutionalisation continues to show that outcomes are better in the community than in institutional care but recent papers highlight that there is more to deinstitutionalisation than just hospital closure. Just moving people out of institutions into community settings does not bring about automatic improvement in quality of life in terms of choice and inclusion as well as self-identify and access to effective healthcare and treatment. This is especially true for people with more severe intellectual disabilities as well as complex needs such as challenging behaviour. However some of the current research illustrated that even offenders with intellectual disability can be successfully supported in the community. Summary Recent research provides further examples and lessons on how community care can and should work which it would be hoped will help those countries just starting the process of institutional closure to move more quickly to full deinstitutionalisation