User Involvement Seminar
Involving people with disabilities in the development, provision and evaluation of quality community-based services
20 - 21 April, 2007 - Zagreb, Croatia
- Introduction
- Draft Statement on User Involvement
- Seminar Report (available in June 2007)
- Programme, press release and list of participants
- Presentations
Introduction
The European Coalition for Community Living organised its second annual seminar on 20 - 21 April 2007 in Zagreb, Croatia, in cooperation with the Association for Promoting Inclusion. The focus of this year's seminar was on the involvement of people with disabilities in the development, provision and evaluation of quality community-based services. As noted in the opening speech, the seminar aimed to provide examples of good practice in providing community-based services and de-institutionalisation, and challenge participants in their thinking and organisation of community-based services.
The seminar brought together close to 130 participants from across Europe, including around 50 participants from Croatia. Among them, there were representatives of disability organisations, people with disabilities, service providers, government officials and representatives of other state bodies. Croatia's Assistant Minister of Social Welfare Dragutin Keserica addressed the participants in the opening session.
During the opening plenary sessions, participants discussed the issue of the quality of services. Challenging questions such as ‘How do we define quality?' and ‘Who decides what ‘good quality' services are?' were presented to the audience. Participants then had the opportunity to learn about the ongoing European research project studying the costs of transition from institutions to a system of community-based services and independent living in 28 European countries. The Council of Europe's Disability Action Plan 2006 - 2015 was also presented, in particular in respect to its implementation and its relation to the newly adopted UN Disability Convention.
The second day of the seminar began with a discussion on challenges to the involvement of users in the planning and delivery of services, using the example of Sweden. This was followed by six focus groups, covering a number of aspects of de-institutionalisation and provision of community based services - policy framework, self-advocacy, guardianship, direct payments and personal assistance - with examples of good practices, existing challenges and possible solutions. The ongoing process of de-institutionalisation in Serbia was also presented, and successful examples of involvement of people with disabilities in the evaluation of services from Austria and the United Kingdom were explained in some detail.
The seminar ended with a call to ECCL to continue advocating for community-based alternatives to institutions in Central and Eastern Europe, but also, equally importantly, other parts of Europe. The crucial importance of all the stakeholders working together was also highlighted, with a recognition that people with disabilities must have a leading role in the process. Finally, the seminar participants were invited to provide feedback on and support the Seminar Statement, highlighting the main conclusions of the event. [Please see below for text of the Draft Statement.]
Draft Statement on User Involvement
| Statement on User Involvement |
Please send your responses to the Draft Statement to Ines Bulic, ECCL Coordinator by 17 June 2007. Thank you.
Seminar Report
| Report |
Programme, press release and list of participants
| Programme (English version) | |
| Programme (Hrvatska verzija) | |
| Press release | |
| Information about the speakers | |
| List of participants |
Presentations
Plenary
| Opening speech • John Evans | |
| Ensuring Quality in the Delivery of Community-Based Services • Christian Zechert | |
| Measuring Service Quality in the 21st Century • Michael S. Chapman | |
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| Community-Based Alternatives to Institutions for People with Disabilities: preliminary results of the European cost-comparison study • Julie Beadle-Brown | |
| Challenges to the Involvement of Users in the Planning and Delivery of Services • Ingemar Färm |
Focus groups
| Policy Framework for Community-Based Services for People with Mental Disabilities in Bulgaria • Slavka Kukova | |
| Policy Frameworks for Community Living, the Independent Living Bill and Challenges of the British System • Neil Coyle | |
| Legal Capacity and Self-Advocacy • Zdenka Petrović | |
| Self-Advocacy as a Precondition to Inclusion • Martine Dutoit | |
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| Guardianship and the Rights of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities: Croatian Experiences • Neda Miščević | Download (English) |
| Community for All: Serbia Case Study • Vladan Jovanović and Ljubomir Pejaković | |
| Freedom and Independent Living through Direct Payments and Personal Assistance Schemes • Ivanka Jovanović | |
| Direct Payments and Personal Assistance in Mental Health • Tina Coldham | |
| Nueva: Users Evaluate Services • Klaus Candussi and Agyby Waltraud | |
| Experts by Experience: Putting People Who Use Services into the Centre of the Inspection Process • Mandy Hooper |