deinstitutionalize

especially British, de·in·sti·tu·tion·al·ise
Or de-in·sti·tu·tion·al·ize

[dee-in-sti-too-shuh-nl-ahyz, -tyoo-, dee-in-]

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.

verb (used without object)

deinstitutionalized, deinstitutionalizing 

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

Other Word Forms

• deinstitutionalization noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of deinstitutionalize¹

First recorded in 1960–65; de- + institutionalize

Example Sentences

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.

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In the 1960s, as the horrors of psychiatric care in hospital settings came to light, a move began to “deinstitutionalize” mental health care and instead move treatment into community-based settings.

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The failure is a relic of the well-meaning but shortsighted move to deinstitutionalize psychiatric care in the last century.

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But the number of state-run psychiatric beds has dropped nearly 80 percent since the 1980s as mental health facilities closed to deinstitutionalize care.

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When the push to deinstitutionalize psychiatric patients began in the 1970s, many inpatient facilities were shut down or downsized in favor of community integration and outpatient services, which never adequately materialized because of a lack of funding.

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