Delivering the promise of Community Living: A perspective from the UK
It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to be able to offer a modest contribution to this important edition of Integracia on deinstitutionalisation. This theme is important to me because my profoundly disabled sister lived much of her life in a British institution until this closed in 1997 – and much of my life’s work has been focused on creating the conditions in which she and every disabled person in my country can (in the words of the recent United Nations Convention) live independently, included in the community*. It is also important to me because I first came to Slovakia more than 20 years ago and have been following, mostly from a distance, the efforts you have been making to advance this common agenda in your country. My understanding – and indeed the premise of this edition – is that the time is now ripe to fully realise the promise of community living in Slovakia. Against this background, Dr Slavomir Krupa invited me to offer a perspective from the UK and other international experience on the key requirements for achieving this transformation successfully.