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Deinstitutionalisation and housing futures

Summary

Project Number: 70015
Research Theme: Health_Ageing_and_Disability
Project Leader: Randolph, Bill
Funding Year: 2000
Research Centre: UNSW-UWS

Research & Policy Bulletin

Issue 002: Meeting the housing needs of people with intellectual disabilities

All Australian states and territories have programmes to close or downsize institutions for intellectually disabled people. This study collected data on each of these programmes, to provide the first national snapshot of the projected numbers of people moving from institutions to community-based housing. It aimed to predict the effect of deinstitutionalisation on housing markets and to assess how effectively and appropriately the housing needs of intellectually disabled people were being met in the community.

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Description

This research concerns housing futures for intellectually and physically disabled people who have been, or who will be, deinstitutionalised. Deinstitutionalisation represents one of the most profound social policy shifts in the history of Western welfare states. All Australian States since the 1960s have embarked upon large scale restructuring of human services delivery, usually involving the closure and/or downscaling of institutions and their replacement by a variety of community care programmes. However, there is no centralised source of information on State/Territory deinstutionalisation policies. As a result, it is difficult, if not impossible, to both assess national and sub-national housing outcomes from deinstitutionalisation and formulate policies to anticipate and address these changes Deinstitutionalised people tend to pursue or experience relatively diverse housing careers. Deinstitutionalisation therefore has profound consequences for housing sub-markets and for housing support policies.

Cross-policy dilemmas have arisen: for example, gaols have become de facto congregate care facilities for people unable to cope with community living. In the past, Australian governments have struggled to comprehend and articulate the full range of housing policy implications raised by deinstitutionalisation. Taken together, the dearth of information about rates of facility/bed closure, and the complexity and diversity of housing outcomes from deinstitutionalisation, make this a vexing area for public policy. In summary, three inter-related policy dilemmas for deinstitutionalisation have been identified. First, a lack of information about current and future rates of facility/bed closure across the States, which hinders policy planning at all levels of government. Second, the complexity of housing outcomes from deinstitutionalisation, whose qualitative and quantitative dimensions are not fully known. Third, a shift in the aspirations of service users and their families/advocates/guardians towards more finely tailored forms of housing that can better reflect the diversity of client needs and desires.

This research aimed to parallel the investigation of housing outcomes for deinstitutionalised people that was undertaken in Britain recently for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (1997) as part of that agency's Housing and Community Care Programme. The researchers intended to use the Rowntree study both as a basis for comparison and as a resource for policy solutions. This project aimed to: document the forward plans for deinstitutionalisation in each State and Territory, focusing on the 2000-2010 time frame; review and describe the recent housing outcomes from deinstitutionalisation in Australia, drawing upon evidence documented in Australia and other relevant policy contexts, and noting any differences between State/Territory experiences; review and describe the housing aspirations of service users and their families/advocates/guardians; outline the broad policy implications of findings on the above and make recommendations for policy development; and involve service agencies directly in the research and in consideration of its findings.

More Information

Research and Policy Bulletin: Issue 002: Meeting the housing needs of people with intellectual disabilities
45 KB PDF Document

Final Report: No. 002: Deinstitutionalisation and housing futures
229 KB PDF Document

Positioning Paper: No. 001: Deinstitutionalisation and housing futures
959 KB PDF Document