deinstitutionalization

noun4

1. •
   The process of converting daily care for intellectually disabled people and mental health care for psychiatric patients from an institution-based model (focused largely on sequestering them in mental hospitals) to a community-based model (in which they live in small group homes or private residences to the greatest feasible extent).

   • By the 1970s, calls for deinstitutionalization had grown strong enough to yield systemic changes.
2. •
   The process of releasing a person from a facility where their freedom to leave has been restrained.

   • The deinstitutionalization of minor offenders helps reduce prison overcrowding.
3. •
   The process of reducing a person's dependence on an institutional environment.

   • After thirty years in the asylum, deinstitutionalization would present many problems.
4. •
   The process of abolishing a practice that has been considered a norm.

   • The government began the deinstitutionalization of background checks for certain Federal jobs.