Effect of deinstitutionalization on social impairment in people with intellectual disabilities

The present paper reports data from a collaborativelongitudinal study, led by the Tizard Centre, between theUniversities of Kent and Durham, and the London Schoolof Economics. The purpose of this presentation is toindicate how social impairment changes are related to themove from institutional to community care. A measure ofsocial impairment using the skills and behaviour interviewfrom the most recent follow-up of this cohort was foundto be consistent with Wing’s definition of socialimpairment at  years on from de-institutionalization.This measure was then used to retrospectively identifysocial impairment in the same sample (of ª people) atbaseline (in the institution) and at ,  and  years in thecommunity. In addition to looking at changes frominstitutional to community care, the present paper reportsdata on the effect of increasing age on social impairment.