After the Institution: What Next?

Can people who have had long stays in psychiatric institutions be supported to live independently in the community? This article reports on a study that considers programs providing this support in two Australian cities. When psychiatric hospitals close, people residing in them need housing. Many also need support to enable them to live independently in the community. Since the inception of the National Mental Health Strategy in 1992 various models of support and housing have been developed for this group. This article discusses a research project being undertaken by the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne that considers one of these models. The project is called 'Out of the Institution'. It looks at outcomes from a model of housing and support that has been implemented in Victoria, and at the recent implementation of similar model in South Australia. The study takes as its starting point a model delivered in the northern suburbs of Melbourne since 1995 by NEAMI, a psychosocial rehabilitation support agency, in partnership with Supported Housing Limited, which is a specialist housing management agency.