Major grant to study institutional care of disabled people in Europe

January 12, 2006

The Tizard Centre at the University of Kent has been awarded a

350,000 euro grant by the European Commission to find out how many

disabled people are still cared for in institutions across Europe and

what would be the costs of replacing institutions with services in

the community.

The project is led by Professor Jim Mansell and Dr Beadle-Brown

from the Tizard Centre, and Professor Knapp from the London

School of Economics. It involves researchers in Spain, Germany,

Belgium and the Czech Republic and will take two years to study the

situation in 22 countries. It builds on a previous project by the

Tizard Centre showing that conditions in institutions abroad were

similar to those that existed in Britain and the USA before they were

replaced with community services.

Professor Mansell said 'This is an important milestone on the road to

reforming services for disabled people. Across Europe, people want to

replace outdated, poor quality care with services that respect

people's rights as individuals and help them live as independently as

possible, with whatever level of support they need. This project will

provide the first systematic information about what needs to be done.'

The Tizard Centre is one of the UK's leading academic groups working

in disability and community care. As well as research, it offers

specialist teaching for professionals and staff in health and social

care services, and provides practical advice and consultancy to help

improve services.

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