Spanish Deinstitutionalisation Programme Launched

On June 13, the Spanish Government launched the State Strategy for a New Care Model: deinstitutionalization 2024-2030. The goal of this strategy is to transform the care and support model in Spain for people who are at risk of social exclusion, including people with disabilities, homeless people, children in care and older people.

The objective of this strategy is to propose a new model based on community life, a model that allows people to leave large institutions and residential care and to live in their own homes in neighbourhoods and towns, like other citizens. People should have all the same opportunities to participate and contribute that others take for granted. This broad and ambitious strategy has been built in partnership with many of Citizen Network’s partners and cooperative members, such as Aprocor, Hogar Sí and Plena inclusión.

The Strategy was presented at the Imserso headquarters in Madrid, at an event attended by the Minister of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy, and several Secretaries of State: Rosa Martínez (Social Rights), Javier Padilla (Health0, David Lucas (Housing and Urban Agenda), Rubén Pérez (Youth and Children) and Aina Calvo (Equality).

Along with them were many people with lived experience of exclusion who formed the Strategy Advisory Council. As a representative of people with disabilities on this Council, Daniel Díaz, from the Madrid Independent Living Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities, told his personal story of advocacy for the rights of his peers with intellectual disabilities. Several experts who have been involved in the Strategy also gave talks, including Citizen Network member Belén Martínez, from Aula Escalena, Patricia Navas, from the Institute for Community Integration (INICO) and Joseba Zalakain, director of the SISS.

The Strategy aims to transform the support and care system so that all people, especially people who have higher support needs, or who face more complex challenges, can live a life of citizenship: with their own plans and living alongside their neighbours as equals - not forced to live by the rules of an institutional regime.

The strategy has 5 prongs:

1. Prevention - addressing the dynamics that lead to institutionalisation
2. Citizenship - building a new vision for Spanish society of what a good life means
3. Transformation - new models care and support required for the future
4. Transition - new services to create the transition to life in the community
5. Enablement - changing the regulatory, financial and governance systems

You can read more about the strategy here (the text is in Spanish).

Dr Simon Duffy, President of Citizen Network said:

“There is something exciting going in Spain. Global progress on deinstitutionalisation has been too slow and is often fragmented. In some countries there are good initiatives for people with physical disabilities, but people with intellectual disabilities are then excluded, or younger people are given new opportunities, while older people are ignored. The deinstitutionalisation process mirrors the injustices, silos and divisions that have caused institutionalisation. But Spain has uniquely understood that institutions are a sign of a much wider breakdown in community life and it is taking an exciting and progressive approach to tackling this problem. The Spanish Government should be congratulated and supported. Hopefully other countries will catch on.”