ABSTRACT
Leaving aside the ethical, legal and humanitarian factors adding impetus to de-institutionalisation, there is no doubt that institutional care is expensive, but precisely how expensive in comparison with non-institutional care it is difficult to estimate. A source of impetus for the de-institutionalisation movement arose from the nature-nurture studies which emphasised the importance of environment in the development of intelligence. The idiosyncratic nature of the institutional environment, and possible negative characteristics of the pre-institutional environment are significant, however, in determining whether institutional life is beneficial or harmful. In South Australia compared costs for institutional and community living units for a defined marginal population. Adoption of the principle of normalisation in the United States of America arose as a response to a number of impetuses. The widespread acceptance of de-institutionalisation was the exposure of the degrading, inhumane and cruel conditions existing in some facilities.
