Transforming Communities for Inclusion (TCI) is a global Organisation of Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities [an OPD]. TCI forecasts a future in which all human rights and full freedoms of persons with psychosocial disabilities are realized. TCI has actively participated in seeing a UN “Guidelines on De-institutionalisation, including during emergencies”, come to fruition.
Annually, TCI runs the #WhatWENeed campaign, with this year’s themes being:
- De-institutionalisation.
- Community Inclusion.
- Access to justice.
- Lived experiences of persons with intersectional and neurodiverse identities:
Carr Gomm’s International Collaborations project submission was accepted as part of the #WhatWeNeed campaign on the topic of deinstitutionalisation.
The submission included personal stories from two Carr Gomm support workers – Jillian and Luis, who kindly agreed to share their thoughts and experiences of Scotland’s social care sector and what it is like to work for Carr Gomm.
Luis compares International support between Scotland, Chile and Argentina; read an extract below:
“In both Chile and Argentina, it is really hard to get access to care services, and only those who are privileged, with considerable wealth, are able to get the quality and level of support needed.”
“I was really amazed by the frameworks and policies here in Scotland! … I am not sure if any other country has developed such a framework in terms of the policies, training and multidisciplinary teams of professionals coordinating and working towards the well-being of people supported, WITH the person supported at the centre of it all.”
Jillian looks at deinstitutionalization and the environment; read an extract below:
“In terms of the UN’s recent guidelines on deinstitutionalization, I’ve had experience of a family member being in a more typical institutional setting, a care home, that sadly lived up to all the negative stereotypes that institutions have – everything was so regimented and impersonal, so institutionalized, there was no autonomy for residents, it was a truly terrible experience. There is nothing worse than living your life being dictated to. … Giving people actual choices about how they live and the environment they live in – a person-centred approach is so important – it’s a hill worth dying on.”
To read Carr Gomm’s full submission to TCI, click here.