As part of the OSI Seminar Series, the Public Health Program's Mental Health Initiative and Hope and Homes for Children jointly hosted a regional seminar in Budapest to share successes and challenges in ending the institutionalization of people with mental disabilities.
The seminar, Step Up: Sharing Successes and Challenges in Deinstitutionalization, drew participants from local and national government and civil society groups from Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine. The seminar participants discussed opportunities for deinstitutionalization, challenges, financing and quality of services, and proposed recommendations in order to advance deinstitutionalization in the region.