Users’ involvement and inclusion are the main purposes in the transformation of the residential institutions and its main vehicle. However, it is on the account of other undertakings of the organisation, mostly left aside in the process. Inclusion is the negation of the exclusion, which by total institutions homogenise the society and craft devalued, deviant roles. Inclusion can vary in intensity from mere presence and participation to attachment and identification, affiliation to a group and takes place on personal, organisational and community levels. Assemblies (therapeutic communities) are among the most prominent ways of how to enable involvement of users in the process of transformation. However, they need to, in order to achieve their mission – self-governance and personal affirmation of participants – be open, democratic and really decide on truly important issues, otherwise they remain mere ceremonies, or worse, instrument of control, discipline and manipulation. This way of decision making and participation must persist also after the resettlement and dispersion of residents and include the community and thus contribute to it. Inclusion of users into the community represents also adding the necessary collective, communal dimension to the otherwise individualised care and enables the community to become an agent of care (and not just adverbial clause of place). The role of the professionals is to facilitate such processes while providing support to users to do so. At the same time, the previously excluded by inclusion make the community more real. Four faces of inclusion can be decoded: self-management of care, support in inclusion, renewing and strengthening the networks and community action. These must be considered and enacted simultaneously, since alone they do not suffice as they complement and strengthen each other.
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