Supported residential facilities: supporting residents to stay or move on?
Alice Clark

Contact Email:   btsodapicknowl.com.au

Approximately 1500 disabled South Australians live in Supported Residential Facilities (SRFs). Even though many SRF residents express a desire to live in more independent accommodation, relatively few achieve this. Current literature suggests that the main reasons for this are a lack of housing alternatives and support.

A critical examination of SRF legislation and literature spanning the last forty-five years and interviews with key informants, suggests that other factors exist which contribute to this situation and that little has changed for this vulnerable group of people during this time. Social policy discourse states that today, SRF residents have “more complex needs”, but this paper will argue that their needs have not been recognised or met since de-institutionalisation.

This research, for a Social Science Honours Degree at University of South Australia, found that SRF legislation has a negative impact on residents and that recovery is inhibited in SRFs. This is not in keeping with current disability standards or models of care and highlights the pressing need for new social policy and legislation in this area.

Recommendations include a review of legislation to incorporate citizenship rights and individualised care and that the South Australian Government take up its legislative and ministerial responsibility for SRF residents, as a matter of urgency.

Paper Download Information (if available):

Paper27.pdf

Copyright © 2007 Social Policy Research Centre.