Deinstitutionalization
Content of Law on De-institutionalization:
In today’s world persons with psychosocial disabilities have the right to enjoy life while accessing services like other human beings in society, in line with the SDGs and the UNCRPD, both of which tools base their approaches on the human rights-based method which emphasizes the social model as opposed to the tightly packed and suffocating, medical model. That way, we at RDDF propose to briefly respond to the questions in place as follows:
- Content of the Deinstitutionalization law could include issues of,
Protecting and preserving the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities to access and enjoy services of health, education, employment, life in general, any other issue/s which ensures preserving the dignity of persons with psychosocial disabilities.
Sharing experiences on RDDF’s De-institutionalization Advocacy work:
To-date, RDDF has been and continues to advocate for the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities whereby the organization reckons that they need to access and enjoy all types of services and rights from within their families and communities, basing on the Community-based Rehabilitation (CBR) model. To RDDF, this model ensures that persons with psychosocial disabilities attain and enjoy full participation while accessing and enjoying whatever right and services at their disposal, just like their peers in mainstream society. That way, persons with psychosocial disabilities minimize the possibility of being affected and impacted/marginalized by institutionalization. Accordingly, RDDF realizes that persons with psychosocial disabilities who engage in community-based activities find it quite easy to keep at bay or even eliminate the impact of institutionalization on their lives.
Sharing of Stories of De-institutionalized Individuals at RDDF and how they successfully transited into Community Inclusion
Since its Founding in 2013, RDDF has provided services to diverse groups of persons with disabilities, key among which are persons with psychosocial disabilities. Notably, the stories/experiences of two members of these persons are briefly shared here below, for the benefit of our esteemed readers.
- Dora who went to a special school resulting from her being a person with psychosocial disability and Because she suffered from frequent attacks,, Dora was not allowed to move near any fire or cooking facilities. As a result, she grew up without having key cooking skills. So, she would enjoy food that would be prepared for her by the school cooks and thus did not develop the capacity to participate in preparing meals. After completing her O-level studies, Dora joined a vocational rehabilitation Centre in Jinja town. At that centre trainees with disabilities were trained using the Community-based Rehabilitation (CBR) approach. This made them to interact freely with the surrounding communities. As a result, Dora was initiated and carefully trained to cook. She was also provided with the appropriate drugs to reduce the attacks and as well, she was counseled on the need to have key support services. Thereafter, she became a good cook and social actor. Hence, she qualified as an effective home–maker such that when she later on got married, she comfortably played the role of wife and mother- which also enabled her to become and remain an effective, community care-taker.
- Richard, who was born with a physical disability. Upon joining one of the special schools for the Disabled, Richard was usually over-protected and hence, became generally dependent on friends and other community members for his needs. After completing his Primary Seven studies, he joined a vocational training Centre where he was skilled in shoe-making and repair but without the skills of socializing and entrepreneurship. Upon the leaving the Rehabilitation Centre and then joining the community, he was sensitized by the CBR officers and the community members on issues of emphasizing entrepreneurship and self-reliance. As a result, Richard gradually transformed into a self-reliant and enterprising person.
Community Inclusion
Sharing Stories on disability-based Discrimination regarding access to services within Communities, based on RDDF Advocacy Work:
Since its founding in 2013, RDDF has implemented several programmes which have played a significant role in reducing and eliminating discrimination practices against persons with disabilities (including those with psychosocial disabilities. Two cases in point are:
First, is the case of barriers that limit children with disabilities to participate in the school activities mainly due to inaccessibility of school infrastructure that includes classrooms, sanitation facilities and compound spaces. Here, RDDF has made interventions by securing funding support from the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Uganda, to provide convenient and safe accessibility structures in some Inclusive schools in Wakiso district, to serve as models for reducing and eliminating discriminatory service provision to persons with disabilities (including those with psychosocial disabilities) in communities.
Second, is the challenge of women with psychosocial disabilities being denied access to SRR (sexual and Reproductive Rights/opportunities) due to their being perceived as weak and helpless by their lovers and would-be husbands who end up abandoning them so that they end up being single women, mothers who are burdened by overwhelming families. In this regard, RDDF tirelessly advocates for on-going protection of these women who happen to be frequent sufferers of such neglect and abandonment, to ensure their resilience. Accordingly, RDDF uses its on-going advocacy interventions to ensure that community-wide discrimination regarding the SRR issues of women with psychosocial disabilities is minimized and eliminated, to enable persons with psychosocial disabilities to manage successes while facing challenges appropriately, just like their peers in mainstream society, as equal partners in life, as emphasized by SDG. 17.
Sexual and Reproductive Rights
This thematic area is equally vital in facilitating the lives of persons/women with psychosocial disabilities to function effectively in society. For this latter thematic area to function and impact the lives of persons/women with psychosocial disabilities (just like with persons/women with disabilities in general), it is imperative to engage, properly prepare and implement the following four approaches which have been tested and proven by key, disability experts and stakeholders. These are that persons with psychosocial disabilities need to be,
- Thoroughly understood
- Openly and unconditionally accepted
- Appropriately and effectively exposed
- Sufficiently-facilitated with on-going guidance and support
Once these four approaches are properly utilized, it will be quite easy for the above stated thematic area to be fulfilled in terms of impacting the lives of persons/women with psychosocial disabilities for them to function effectively in mainstream society. Accordingly, the principles of holistic performance and inclusivity shall be fully attained as engrained within the UNCRPD and the SDGs frameworks, to reflect how humanity today is poised to exist and function in a mutually-supportive and rewarding manner.
