Practices of housing among people with intellectual disabilities: Community-based supported housing services Cover Image

Практики на домување кај лицата со интелектуална попреченост: Служби за домување со поддршка во заедницата
Practices of housing among people with intellectual disabilities: Community-based supported housing services

Author(s): Vera Dimitrievska
Subject(s): Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Civil Society, Public Administration, Welfare systems, Cognitive Psychology, Neuropsychology, Family and social welfare
Published by: Филозофскиот факултет во Скопје
Keywords: community-based supported housing services; people with intellectual disabilities; social model; social living;

Summary/Abstract: Over the course of the late 20th century the so-called “social model” (which views disability as the result of social barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating into the society) arose. This model opposed the previously dominant “medical model” (in which disability is considered as an individual pathology) that had until then underpinned much of service provision for people with disabilities all around the world. Latterly the development of holistic models brought about a global understanding of disability, taking into consideration all dimensions. The development of international legislation on the rights of people with disabilities during the 1970s also accounts for this shift in paradigm from the medical to the social model of disability. Among those, the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities in 1993, presented disability rights as an equal opportunity issue rather than a special needs issue. For South East European countries at various stages of an EU association or accession process, a key legal instrument is the Council of Europe Recommendation No. R (92) 6 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on a Coherent Policy for People with Disabilities. In terms of the financial perspective of these services, the results are shown in many reports for institutional care and community-based services. In all of them is noted there is no evidence, that model of community-based services is rather expensive than care in the institutions. Other studies, note the opposite meaning. Experience shows that simply closing institutions is not, in itself, enough to ensure the social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. In order to achieve real inclusion, an efficient network of quality community-based services must be established, and service standards and monitoring systems must be developed.

  • Issue Year: 2010
  • Issue No: 6
  • Page Range: 552-567
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Macedonian