The Right to Live in the Community Seminar
Brussels, 17 May 2006
- Introduction
- Programme, press release and list of participants
- Speeches, presentations and conclusions
Introduction
The Right to Live in the Community Seminar took place on 17 May 2006 in Brussels. It was the first event organised by the European Coalition for Community Living (ECCL), a Europe-wide initiative working towards the social inclusion of people with disabilities by promoting the provision of comprehensive, quality community-based services as an alternative to institutionalisation.
The seminar has succeeded in bringing together around 80 participants from across Europe, including three participants from the United States and New Zealand. It was attended by representatives of disability organisations, user organisations, service providers, research institutes, governments and the European Commission.
The Right to Live in the Community seminar was organised with the support of Inclusion Europe and the Open Society Mental Health Initiative.
Programme, press release and list of participants
| Seminar Programme (English version) | |
| Programme du Séminaire (version française) | |
| Press release | |
| List of participants |
Speeches, presentations and conclusions
Opening Plenary
| Opening of the Seminar - Ingrid Körner, Inclusion Europe |
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| The European Coalition for Community Living - Ines Bulić, The European Coalition for Community Living |
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| The need for de-institutionalisation and community living in Europe: challenges and achievements - Ottmar Miles-Paul, the European Network of Independent Living | |
| The role of different stakeholders in the de-institutionalisation process: experiences from the United States - Steven Eidelman, Disabilities Centre, University of Delaware (USA) | |
| Living Proof: The Right to Live in the Community (documentary) - Association for Promoting Inclusion (Croatia) |
Conclusions from the discussion
- Human rights violations are widespread in institutions for people with disabilities not only in Central and Eastern Europe, but also other parts of Europe. There is a need to look further than just at the most obvious human rights violations and bring to attention the situation in those institutions where more hidden human rights violations are happening on a daily basis.
- Direct payments play an important role in the process of de-institutionalisation, as they give people with disabilities the power to control the services they receive. The same goes for the ability to control what type of housing they live in.
- There is a need for positive role models among people with disabilities in the use of direct payments, in order to empower more people with disabilities to use them. Just having the direct payment system in place is not enough.
- As well as thinking cross-disability when speaking about community living, it is also important to think across different domains of life, such as housing, education, employment, leisure etc.
- It is important to recognise the importance of advocacy and act not only on the national, but also on the regional and international level.
Focus groups
The following themes were discussed by participants in the three parallel focus groups:
- Quality in service delivery
- Strategies for de-institutionalisation
- Disabled people as a driving force for de-institutionalisation
| Involvement of people with intellectual disabilities in quality evaluation of services - Doris Winkler, Fond Soziales Wien and Sabine Schweng, Evaluation of Services, Nueva/Atempo (Austria) | |
| The commitment of service providers to quality - Luk Zelderloo, European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities | |
| Practical experiences with closing a large residential institution in Germany - Theodorus Maas, Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf (Germany) | |
| De-institutionalisation in Croatia: a pioneering example - Borka Teodorović, Association for Promoting Inclusion (Croatia) | |
| Disability activists create possibilities for independent living - John Evans, the European Network of Independent Living | |
| User involvement in services for people with mental health problems - Wilma Boevink, the European Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry |
Towards a European strategy on de-institutionalisation
| The European Union policy - Wallis Goelen, Head of Unit G3: Integration of People with Disabilities, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, European Commission |
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| Key issues and obstacles for a European strategy on de-institutionalisation - Kent Ericsson, University of Uppsala (Sweden) |
Conclusions from the discussion
- In order to ensure community living in its true sense (i.e. living in the community), it is important to raise public awareness about the rights of people with disabilities and their positive role in the life of a community.
- Institutions are not just about buildings. When evaluating the quality of services, there is a need to look beyond the physical environment and evaluate the quality of life of a person.
- The development of community-based alternatives is essential to the closure of institutions. To ensure that people can move out of institutions and to stop new admissions into institutions, it is necessary to shift the funding from institutions to community-based servicesGovernments must accept the fact that they will need to fund both services in parallel over an initial period , in order to make this possible.
- Legal measures alone are not sufficient to accomplish full inclusion for people with mental disabilities and complex dependency needs.
- It is important to strengthen the self-advocacy and parents' movement, as a way to speed up the initiative for more community-based services.
- There is a need to improve communication with trade unions of staff working in the institutions so that they are aware of the situation of people with disabilities and recognize their positive role in the community.
- When it comes to people with mental health problems, it is important that the process of de-institutionalisation is not dominated by the medical model of disability, as is often the case.
Closing remarks
| Jan Jařab, Member of Cabinet of Commissioner Vladimír Špidla, European Commission and former Human Rights Commissioner of the Czech Government | |
| John Evans, member of the Management Committee of ECCL |
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