Major grant to study institutional care of disabled people in Europe

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 Julie Beadle-Brown from the Tizard Centre, and Professor Martin 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 Across Europe, people want to replace outdated, poor quality care with services that respect people’s rights as individuals and help them live as independently as possible, with whatever level of support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.