Trends in social inclusion policies across Europe

Presentation Isilda Shima:
Audio (mp3 11:49 min)

PowerPoint (ppt 200 kB)
Handout (pdf 100 kB)

She singled out three trends in social inclusion policies across Europe:
 

• The adoption of anti-discrimination policies (although cautioning that generally there was still much work to do to achieve full implementation).
• The mainstreaming of education including measures to early leaving of school by children with disabilities. Improved education would result in improved employment opportunities, and less risk of poverty
• The involvement of people  with disabilities in the evaluation and decision making process of policy measures.

The medical model still operates in some Member States (for example Bulgaria, Portugal, Greece, Iceland, Estonia). However, the trend is towards a social model approach including a focus on increased labour market participation.

Poverty was still strongly linked to disability with women and elderly people with disabilities generally experiencing the worst poverty and exclusion.
In relation to independent living, de-institutionalisation in long-term care services was a common trend, but with countries at different stages in implementing this.
    
Direct payment is a new approach to empower people wth disabilities in choosing and managing their own care, currently being adopted in UK, Slovak Republic, Germany, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic and the Netherlands
 
Certain groups experienced difficulties accessing long-term care services: people with mental illness and learning and intellectual disabilities and/or complex care needs.
Key barriers include: lack of affordability of care; poor availability  and limited choices with  regional differences within countries.