Abstract
ABSTRACT ‘Deinstitutionalisation’ has been the twin policy to ‘community care’ and has been a key welfare strategy in Britain for some 30 years. In the 1980s considerable political and professional activity was focused upon the shortcomings of community care, but relatively little attention was paid to the failure of ‘deinstitutionalisation’. Why has it proved so difficult to close long-stay hospitals? This article examines the gulf between official strategies on closure and the reality of continuing institutionalisation. It seeks explanations not only in terms of funding crises, but also in inter-professional, inter-organisational and inter-governmental relations. It concludes that the problems are deeply entrenched and that if deinstitutionalisation is to succeed, a major new initiative will be needed at the central level.
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