As Vito Flaker wrote in the article A Short History of Deinstitutionalisation (Journal for the Critique of Science, No. 250, the year 2012), the current course of deinstitutionalization in Slovenia can be divided into five phases.
The process began as far back as 1967 with an internationally acclaimed experiment in Logatec, where a group of researchers undertook the transformation of a boys’ nursery school. They wanted to create a different, permissive way of education and establish more democratic relations between the users, who were then called foster children and educators. According to Flaker, researchers and professors from the Institute of Criminology also conducted the first action research in the field at the time.
This was the basis for the second phase, which began with the colony on Raktina in 1976. According to Flaker, the colony has shown that democratic relations are possible without punishment and with the self-determination of children. At that time, ideas about changes in this area began to spread to a larger circle of people. These were the beginnings of a social movement that did not yet speak about the goals of deinstitutionalization.
In the second half of the 1980s, this changed. The Committee for the Social Protection of Madness was established, and among other things, organizing a camp and numerous events at the Hrastovec Institute. Flaker says that in this third phase, the existence of total institutions was first highlighted as a problem. The fourth phase in the 1990s was marked by establishing community services (especially in the NGO sector) and creating the community work knowledge base.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the first housing groups for children from educational institutions were established. In the early 1990s, the Committee for the Social Protection of Madness founded the first housing group for adults with mental distress. The first residents from Hrastovec moved. Later in the 1990s, several NGOs emerged in the mental health field, organizing day centers, housing groups, and field visits. But all this has not yet made it possible to carry out deinstitutionalization, which was still limited to the efforts of activists, non-governmental organizations, volunteers, etc.
Deinstitutionalization entered the public sector from the level of civil society only at the beginning of the 21st century. This phase was initiated in Hrastovec by resettling residents from a special institution to housing groups or dislocated units. Thus, the first systematic relocations from special social welfare institutions, changes in the functioning of community services, and legislation started. Flaker says that this phase can be considered a real deinstitutionalization. Yet, it had stalled when it was supposed to transform into the next, sixth phase – systemic deinstitutionalization. Systemic deinstitutionalization is precisely what the DI team behind this website strives for.
At IRSSV, we are committed to ensuring that deinstitutionalisation continues and is brought to completion. In recent years, we have been involved in several key projects and programmes:
– Through the project “Establishment of a Project Unit for Deinstitutionalisation (PEDI)” (March 2018–October 2022), we laid the foundations for the comprehensive completion of the deinstitutionalisation process in Slovenia;
– We participated in two pilot projects: from June 2020 to September 2023 in the project “Deinstitutionalisation of CUDV Črna na Koroškem”, and from April 2020 until the end of 2024 in the project “Deinstitutionalisation of Dom na Krasu”;
– We made a significant contribution within the Target Research Programme CRP 2023 “Transformation of Secure Units into Community-Based Forms of Care for Adults and Children with Disabilities” (V5-2335), carried out from 1 October 2023 to 31 March 2025;
– In 2025–2027, through the project “Models for Activating Large Family Houses with Empty or Partly Empty Living Spaces” (V5-2545), we will explore how to revitalise large empty or partly empty houses in Slovenia and integrate them into the housing stock.
The Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development of the Republic of Slovenia has approved a financial contribution to the Social Protection Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (IRSSV) for the operation “Centre for Managing DeInstitutionalisation – CMDI (CUDI in Slovenian)”. Based on the Strategy of the Republic of Slovenia for Deinstitutionalisation 2024–2034, the project strengthens the transition from institutional care to community-based forms of support.
Within the CUDI project and the Centre for Deinstitutionalisation (CDI), we provide professional and organisational support for deinstitutionalisation. At the national level, this means coordinating cooperation across ministries and service providers; at the local level, it involves field-based support, training, and counselling for users, their families, and key community stakeholders. A particular focus is placed on knowledge development and raising public awareness about deinstitutionalisation.
A key component of the project are multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) — “teams around the person” — bringing together professionals from different fields, including peer support workers. MDTs plan and deliver tailored support together with the person, and connect local actors to enable a good quality of life in the community and help prevent institutionalisation.