Report on the Transition From Institutional Care to Community-Based Services

This is a report by the European Expert Group on Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care, focusing on 27 EU Member States.

Since 2009 numerous stakeholders at European and national level have been working on promoting social inclusion, combating poverty and discrimination, and making the shift from institutional to community-based care a reality for a variety of target groups in European countries. 

There is strong evidence from research over many decades that community-based alternatives can provide better results. In addition, costly improvements in the physical conditions of existing institutions or the division/redesign of existing institutions into smaller units fail to change the institutional culture and make it more difficult to close these institutions in the long term. Previous research showed that such an institutional culture is often still present in smaller community-based residential services and relatively resistant to change even in the countries that started the process of deinstitutionalisation much earlier than others. 

The aim of this report was to collate information about policies and plans, changes over time, strengths and areas of concerns relevant to the advancement of deinstitutionalisation in 27 EU countries and for six target groups: adults with disabilities, adults with mental health problems, children (including children with disabilities), unaccompanied or separated migrant children, homeless persons and older adults. 

Read the full report here.