Advocates Celebrate 'Institution-Free' New Zealand Several hundred people -- many of them former residents of the 13 state-run institutions that have closed over the past 40 years -- gathered in Parliament to celebrate with song, cake and speeches. Government officials called the successful de-institutionalization of New Zealand an indication of the country's 'maturity' and an example of it being a world leader in providing community-based services to people with disabilities. Disability Issues Minister Ruth Dyson said: "The deinstitutionalization process was about ensuring people with intellectual and physical disabilities can live in the community and do day-to-day things most of us take for granted." People First New Zealand's Graeme Parish, who was institutionalized at age 6, said people with disabilities just want to live ordinary lives. "When you see a person with a learning disability serving you petrol, making you coffee in a cafe, walking down the street with their partner, walking their dog -- this is ordinary, this is what we want." Related: --- Reproduced here under special arrangement
with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service. |
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