Health zyxw & Social Care in the Community zyx 3(4), 249-259 A step in the right direction: people with learning difficulties moving into the community Carol Walker’ BA (Hons) MA(Econ), Tony Ryan’ BA and Alan Walker’ BA (Hons) DLitt FRSA School of Health and Community Studies, Sheffield Hallam University’ and *Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Correspondence Carol Walker School of Health and Community Studies Sheffield Hallam University 36 Collegiate Crescent Sheffield S10 2BP UK Abstract It is more than a decade since the government announced that Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) should close their long-stay mental handicap hospitals. The North West Regional Health Authority’s (NWRHA) commitment to the resettlement of people with learning difficulties into ordinary housing in the community pre-dated the government’s cost- driven initiative. In 1982 the Region published zyxw A zyxw Model District Service, a strategy document supported by both the District Health Authorities (DHAs) and the local social services departments, in which it set out a user-centred philosophy for community services for people with learning difficulties. This paper is based on an evaluation of the impact of that strategy, the central part of which was an examination of the experiences of 102 people who moved out of three large mental handicap hospitals between March 1990 and March 1991. The research team’s primary concern was to obtain information from the people with learning difficulties who had moved into the community. Unstructured interviews were conducted with those with an adequate level of communication, photographs were used to assist those with very limited communication; Observations were made over a period of time of those without any communication skills at all. Interviews were also conducted with the formal care worker in the community and, where there was one, a relative who had meaningful contact with their learning disabled relative. The research found that the move into the community offered the people concerned a much improved quality of life, with greater independence and choice in everyday living. However, there is a need to build on this so that people’s life experiences are not merely better than those offered by the already discredited institutions, but so that they can become fully integrated and respected members of society. Keywords: community care, learning difficulty, quality of life, resettlement Accepted for publication 9 February 1995 Introduction It is now more than a decade since the government announced that RHAs should close their large long- stay mental handicap hospitals and instead develop provision within the community. In the NWRHA the commitment to community life for this group of service users pre-dated this announcement. The NWRHA’s philosophy with regard to services for peo- ple with learning difficulties was set out in zyxwvu A zyxwvuts Modd District Service (MDS) published in 1982 (NWRHA 1982). The MDS comprised a strategy for the provision of services to all people with learning difficulties in the region and also included a framework for the resettle- ment of people with learning difficulties from the long-stay mental handicap hospitals, with the conse- quent closure of those units. At the time of its publication, the MDS was break- ing new ground in two respects. First, it was drawn up z 0 1995 Blackwell Science Ltd 249