2022 Japan Society for Disability Studies Annual Academic Meeting
“CRPD and Deinstitutionalization of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities”
17 September 2022
13:00- 17:30 (All times are in JST: UTC+9)
In-Person (Doshisha University) and On-Line
Programme
13:00 Opening by Ishikawa Jun, President of JSDS
Opening by Hirono Shunsuke, Organizer of the meeting
Address by Dr. Karen Nakamura, President of Society for Disability Studies
13:15 Introduction by Nagase Osamu, chair, international committee, JSDS
“Deinstitutionalization and persons with intellectual disabilities: towards equality and non-discrimination”, Keynote by Prof. Jonas Ruskus, Professor at Department of Social Work at Vytautas Magnus University and Vice-Chair, UNCRPD Committee
14:15 Break
14:30 Symposium on Deinstitutionalization of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, chaired and facilitated by Kosuke Okabe(Waseda University)
17:25 Closing remarks
17:30 Adjournment
Deinstitutionalisation and personal assistance for people with intellectual disabilities
Suzuki Ryo(Doshisha University)
Independent Living Support for People with Intellectual Disabilities through Severe Visiting Care. Tanaka Emiko (Tokyo Kasei University)
Independent Living Support for People with Intellectual Disabilities by Group Homes, Mitsumasu Masahisa (Japan Group Home Society, former president)
Mugikura Yasuko (Kanto Gakuin University)
*Outline of the KEYNOTE
In my lecture I will address the institutionalization of persons with disabilities as a grave and systemic discrimination of them, and the human rights-based response, as obligated by the States Parties of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the United Nations (UN CRPD). My lecture will be based on my personal and professional disability-related experience, particularly in residential institutions and community-based living with persons with intellectual disabilities, and particularly on my work at the UN CRPD Committee. I will tackle the issue of how, by what patterns and means, the institutionalization of persons with disabilities is perpetuated. Cases of Hungary, France and Japan will be touched upon as they have been considered from the UN CRPD perspective, with the aim to demonstrate how seriously, through various forms of institutionalisation, medical model of disability upholds the discrimination of persons with disabilities and their social exclusion, especially those with intellectual or psychosocial disability, or persons with high support requirements. The human rights model of disability, as codified within the UN CRPD, brings freedom and equality, as well as the set of all human rights, such as civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights, for all matters as concerns all persons with disabilities, regardless of impairment they have, including and especially the independent living in the community on an equal basis with others. The dignity of a person with disability and the recognition of disability as part of human diversity are at the hearth of the human rights model of disability and of deinstitutionalization. We will look inside the UN CRPD to highlight the provisions, intrinsically related to deinstitutionalization. Provisions as regard children and adults with disabilities will be differentiated. The Guidelines on the Deinstitutionalization, including in emergencies, very recently adopted by the UN CRPD Committee, will be brought forward and discussed.
*Outline of the SYMPOSIUM
The symposium will focus on the area of people with intellectual disabilities, where deinstitutionalisation has lagged behind the most, and examine the prospects and challenges of deinstitutionalisation in Japan.
In the first half of the symposium, leading speakers from each area will present reports from three perspectives: personal assistance, heavy visiting care and group homes.
The first part of the symposium will focus on personal assistance for persons with intellectual disabilities in the world and in Japan. Personal assistance systems have played a certain role in de-institutionalising people with intellectual disabilities and supporting independent living overseas. On the other hand, various challenges have arisen in terms of management, decision-making support, rights protection and employment security. Ryo Suzuki, who has conducted research on personal assistance systems in Sweden and Canada and in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, will report on the prospects and challenges of personal assistance in the deinstitutionalisation of persons with intellectual disabilities.
Next, he will discuss the support for independent living for persons with intellectual disabilities through heavy visiting care in Japan. In Japan, there has been a practice of supporting people to live alone or with peers while utilising heavy home-visit care, the service closest to personal assistance. Through severe home-visit care, it has been possible for people with intellectual disabilities to live independently, in a way that is different from group homes. On the other hand, various institutional restrictions and operational challenges have been pointed out with regard to severe home-visit care. Emiko Tanaka, who has investigated the practice in Japan, will report on the prospects and challenges of heavy visiting care for persons with intellectual disabilities.
She will also discuss group homes for persons with intellectual disabilities in Japan. Since the enactment of the Law for Supporting the Independence of Persons with Disabilities, group homes have become larger and more concentrated in one area, and the reality is that they are becoming more and more institutionalised. On the other hand, group homes have been working to bring them as close as possible to independent living while utilising condominium-type housing and heavy visiting care. Mr Masahisa Mitsumasu, former representative of the Group Home Society, will report on the prospects and challenges of group homes as a means of de-institutionalising people with intellectual disabilities.
In the second half of the symposium, there will be an intensive discussion with the floor on the prospects and challenges for deinstitutionalisation in Japan in the future, based on the issues raised by the designated discussant, Yasuko Mugikura, in response to each report.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)