Disabilities and institutional care

There are many different views on disabilities and many different ways of taking care of us. One of them is the institution.

For this post, I couldn't find that many reliable sources for facts. One fact that was impossible to find was on how many countries in the world that still use institutions. This is of course a result of the view on institutions. With different views on disabilities, there are also different views on the definition of what an institution is.

But one thing that many can agree upon is that, an institution is a place where you are isolated from society and have no independent rights.

Disabilities and the Institution

What's an institution

An institution is a place where the child:

Lives in a place that's isolated from society.
Is separated from their parents.
Does not have the opportunity to form a healthy relationship with a primary caregiver.
Lives with a large group of children.
Individual needs are not cared for.

What's wrong with institutions

Research shows that institutional care harms the child's wellbeing, both physically and mentaly.

Institution and children with disabilities

Institutional care also harms the view on persons with disabilities. Without individual rights, disabilities often get worse in institutional care.

Institutions and developmental delays

The long term effect of institutional care can be severe developmental delays.

What are the alternatives

A majority of children living in institutions can live with their parents with the right support.

Community service- access to healthcare and education.
Accessibility - access to mobility aids and adaptation of homes.
Support services- possibilities of hiring a personal care assistant or Respite services.

The Vipeholm experiments

In Sweden in 1947 to 1949, the institution for intellectually disabled in Vipeholm used a group of patients as test subjects. The experiments were designed to provoke tooth decay in the subjects. All patience in the experiments were forced to participate.

This experiment is the leading foundation to the research about tooth decay and the reason why we brush our teeth.

A doctor in front of the enclosed yard at the Vipeholm institution

One major reason why this experiment could happen where that directors of institutions could treat the patience's as they saw fit. There where no regulation that demanded the directors to inform anyone in how they took care of the patience's. All images in this post are from that institution, unfortunately, i could not find the image source for the front images and the names of the boys.

A film adaptation has been made about the Vipeholm experiments, release date this year

Now in Sweden

Sweden has a system called LSS (lagen om stöd och service till vissa funktionshindrade). The law came into force 1993 and gave the rights to persons with disabilities to live as normal as anyone else. The law give the rights to several things, among them are the right to personal care assistants, or the right to a LSS-boende (A group home where you have your own apartment whit your own entrance so go can come and go as you wish). It took a while to build every necessary amenity and it wasn't until 2003 that the last institutionalized person in Sweden could move back home.

References

Lumos. (2021). https://www.wearelumos.org/. accessed dec 2021.

Disability rights international. (2021). Our reports and publications. https://www.driadvocacy.org/. accessed dec 2021.

Save the Children UK. Keeping children out of harmful institutions – Why we should be investing in family-based care.(2009)

Sveriges radio. Dokumentärer. (2010). https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/65245. accessed dec 2021.

Facebook. (2021). Filmrampen. https://www.facebook.com/filmrampen/?ref=page_internal. accessed dec 2021

Images sources

Digitalt museum. 2021. https://digitaltmuseum.se/. accessed dec 2021.