A Place to Call My Own: Identifying Best Practice in Housing and Mental Health

Over the past few years, there has been a growing debate in Australian society about the way housing processes can contribute to social exclusion. Despite this debate some commentators argue that Australian housing policy lacks recognition that the issue of deinstitutionalisation is also a rehousing process, which has the potential for achieving social inclusion for people moving into the community. Although housing plays an integral role in deinstitutionalisation, its importance is often submerged and even lost in academic and policy debates about community care in Australia (Bostock and Gleeson (2004). Yet suitable housing is a key aspect in the community sustainability of deinstitutionalised individuals with psychiatric disability, whereby they can, potentially, be provided with some choice and control over where and with whom they live. Indeed, gaining control over these aspects of life is considered a critical step towards achieving social inclusion. Our research project aims to identify the housing aspirations and preferences of people with psychiatric disability moving from institutional to community care. This paper reports on the first stage of the research, which synthesizes and identifies baseline evidence from the international literature about suitable models of housing and the housing preferences of people with psychiatric disability.