Supported residential services as a type of “total institution”: Implications for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)

A policy norm enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006 reflected in Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme is for people with psychosocial and other disabilities to have choice and control over their lives and not to live in institutional settings. In Australia, private congregate care settings remain in most states and territories, yet are not recognised as institutional settings in policy or academic literature. This recognition is long overdue and is the focus of this article. The article reports on findings from an ethnographic study in a type of private congregate care setting in Victoria—supported residential services (SRS). Adopting criteria adopted by Davies (1989) from Goffman's notion of “total institution,” observations and interviews with 12 residents with psychosocial disability are analysed. These settings are found to meet many of the criteria for total institution. This finding has two critical implications for policy and practice. First, the extent to which institutionalisation in SRS impacts on the choices residents are able to make. Second, the extent to which independent support and advocacy are needed to ensure residents can exercise choice and control over their lives to find pathways out of SRS.