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Abstract: 

This article is by an author who has frequently written about conditions of care for children and adults with mental disabilities throughout the world. A common theme of most of these reports has been the absence of services in the community, leading to unnecessary and prolonged institutionalization of thousands of people with disabilities in these facilities. The overcrowding, understaffing, and lack of resources and programs in these institutions generally lead to pervasive abuse and neglect of the residents. The same absence of community services which led to their admission prevents their discharge. Admission to one of these institutions is all too often a life sentence from which the only escape is death. A recent UNICEF report helps put these findings in perspective. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the numbers of children with disabilities in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States and Baltic States (CEE/ CIS) have dramatically increased.

Keywords: children with disabilities in Central and Eastern Europe

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