More power implies having adequate funds, defining social situations and setting the agenda. Funds should therefore he provided directly to the individual concerned, for example in the form of a personal budget as is the case in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. This is a new approach to disability. It is also a philosophy of disabled people's needs. In this it differs fundamentally from the traditional philosophy of rehabilitation, which is therapy-orientated and essentially geared to the adjustment of disabled people to existing working and living structure.
Every democratic society guarantees the individual the right to dignity and self-determination.
The latter applies most importantly to accommodation, leisure, work and the choice of career, religion, sexuality and lifestyle in general. Disabled people who require a high level of care and assistance in their daily lives are often deprived of all those options except as regards their religion. On medical and financial grounds, medical officers, charitable organisations in charge of residential homes, and the welfare authorities all press for institutionalisation in cases where a high level of care and support is required. What is sure is that people in residential care lose the right to decide when they go to bed, get up, shower and perform various other intimate activities. Care plans regulate the daily routine, day in, day out.