Moving from institutional to community–based care is a difficult yet worthwhile journey. Community care offers long-term benefits in terms of choice, access and greater proximity to the users of social services. It reflects the holistic approach to care and promote interagency work and cooperation between professionals from all relevant fields.

Transition to community care is also an opportunity to build more cohesive and dynamic local communities where everyone’s potential can be realised. Such communities, which encourage talent and remove barriers, stand a better chance of thriving economically and of being seen as a good place to live and do business.

Public local social services are more and more often called upon to promote equity, access and quality of life of all citizens, independently of their condition, through the networks of local empowering services.

Read below how ESN members see the development of community care in their countries and what challenges they still face:
 

Belgium: Improving access to community-based services
Bulgaria: Deinstitutionalization in the field of children services (public sector perspective)
Bulgaria (2): Deinstitutionalization in the field of children services (NGO perspective)
Czech Republic: Health and social care for the elderly
England:Model of integrated social, employment and housing services for people with disabilities
Ireland:History of the Irish institutional care for the elderly
Ireland (2): Model of integrated care for the elderly
Italy:An overview of the Italian deinstitutionalization reform and current challenges
Italy (2): Model of mental health services
Sweden: Care for people with intellectual disabilities
 

You can also read about more general issues:

• Towards community-based social care (institutional culture)
• Making the economic case for community care
• Designing the vision and strategy for deinstitutionalisation in Slovakia
• Community living as a human right for vulnerable people
• Are all institutions bad?
• How do we care for older people?
• European Mental Health Pact
• Local planning and sustainability
• National legislation and strategy reports about community care