A report has been launched following the completion of a new study focusing on the deinstitutionalisation of disabled people. This report has as one of its goals to provide a basis for the national strategy of deinstitutionalization.
The report was launched during the national conference of the CRPD which takes place every year in connection with the World Day of Persons with Disabilities. The report also shows how people with disabilities need access to a whole network of services that together provide the necessary assistance for people with disabilities to live in the community independently.
The report, made by the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), includes a number of interviews with persons with disabilities who live in institutions as well as others who live in the community. This study also includes a number of interviews with service providers, professionals and other interested parties from the disability sector.
CRPD Commissioner Rhoda Garland said, “This study is an important document that includes not only the wishes and aspirations of disabled people through their own voices, but also includes a number of recommendations that come directly from these voices, and which therefore also provides a good basis for the deinstitutionalization strategy.”
The Minister for Inclusion, Volunteering and Consumer Rights, Julia Farrugia Portelli explained that this study and research has arrived at an important time as the Government is working on the reform of the personal assistant. “This is one of the biggest reforms we will see in the disability sector because it will continue to give more tools for the independence of the individual,” explained the Minister. The Minister said that the public consultation on this reform, which ended last week, saw 30 different submissions, including from organizations that work directly in the disability sector.
The CRPD has been assigned the role of monitoring the implementation of the National Disability Strategy. Therefore the Commission works to make deinstitutionalisation more and more of a priority in the disability sector.
The right to live independently and in the community is established both in the European Social Charter and in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), both of which were ratified and implemented by Malta as a member state. In addition, in the National Strategy on Disability, ‘Freedom to Live (2021–2030)’, Malta is committed to addressing the deinstitutionalization of people with disabilities through the formulation of a National Deinstitutionalization Strategy and to provide and coordinate community-based services, among other actions.
Photo: MIVC
