deinstitutionalize

American  

[dee-in-sti-too-shuh-nl-ahyz, -tyoo-, dee-in-] / diˌɪn stɪˈtu ʃə nlˌaɪz, -ˈtju-, ˌdi ɪn- /

especially British, deinstitutionalise or de-institutionalize

verb (used with object)

deinstitutionalized, deinstitutionalizing

1. to release (a person with mental or physical disabilities) from a hospital, asylum, home, or other institution with the intention of providing treatment, support, or rehabilitation primarily through community resources under the supervision of healthcare professionals or facilities.

2. to remove (care, therapy, etc.) from the confines of an institution by providing treatment, support, or the like through community facilities.

3. to free from the confines or limitations of an institution.

4. to free from the bureaucracy and complex procedures associated with institutions.

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verb (used without object)

deinstitutionalized, deinstitutionalizing

1. to give up or lose institutional character or status; become deinstitutionalized.

Other Word Forms

• deinstitutionalization
  noun

Etymology

Origin of deinstitutionalize

First recorded in 1960–65; de- + institutionalize

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

deinstitutionalize deinstitutionalized deinstitutionalizing

The scarcity of resources stems from a nationwide effort in the 1960s to deinstitutionalize people from large, warehouselike psychiatric hospitals that had become hotbeds of neglect and abuse.

From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2023

Fir Lane, the long-term-care facility where Fournier lives in Shelton, Wash., has embraced the Eden Alternative, a growing movement whose aim is to revolutionize and deinstitutionalize the long-term-care industry.

From Time Magazine Archive

Across California at that time, people with a range of disabilities were being deinstitutionalized, with little provision made for them after their release.

From New York Times ● May 7, 2024

There are many reasons for this outsize problem, including generations-old state laws that deinstitutionalized mentally ill people as well as high housing costs that have since priced tens of thousands out of shelter.

From New York Times ● Mar. 10, 2024

That gave people, including those who were deinstitutionalized, no other option but to live on the streets.

From Slate ● Oct. 23, 2019

It suddenly seemed as if classical composition could be deinstitutionalized just by rerouting it geographically.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 22, 2017

The “free world” became perilous for deinstitutionalized poor people suffering from mental disabilities.

From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

Both statistics, reported in a new national study, reflect the sweeping changes that have taken place in the half-century since the United States began deinstitutionalizing mental illness in favor of outpatient treatment.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 1, 2016