Abstract:

Promoting as much independent living as possible is one of the areas currently making a significant contribution to improving the quality of life of people with special needs. The very concept of independence has many different meanings. Independence as a process has different levels that can be achieved. And it also implies certain abilities and skills that the person or his/her carers need to have or to develop in order to make independence possible. Because of the breadth of the issue, at the initiative of the Abakus Foundation, we decided to carry out research to be able to define what all falls under the concept of independent living. Subsequently, we will be able to map the terrain of organisations providing services and care that enable people with special needs to achieve as much independence as possible. Services or approaches that are assessed as effective, innovative and of high quality, both from the perspective of the providers themselves and from the perspective of people with special needs, will be documented and disseminated as examples of good practice. In this paper we will offer a discussion of the partial results of the research carried out.

Keywords:

Independent living, people with special needs, services, innovations, good practice.