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VULNERABLE430 rectly pointed out the need for flexibility in allowing visitors to group homes for people with intellectual disabilities.49 As this chapter was being finalized, the British Columbia government announced a revi- sion to its visitor policy, allowing designated representatives to assist people with disabilities to eat, communicate, and make decisions.50 Others, including Adelina Iftene, Chapter D-5 in this volume, have written persuasively about the urgent need to reduce the num- ber of persons detained in prisons. COVID-19 has also confirmed the urgent need to release people with disabilities from institutional and congregate settings into community settings.51 Preventative deinsti- tutionalization protects their health, as well as the health of staff and the public.52 Reducing the number of admissions and accelerating discharges frees up valuable health care resources.53 Depopulation also reduces overcrowding so those remaining can practise physical distancing. Institutional release may raise other issues for residents unable to return to accessible, private, or safe homes in the community. Preventative deinstitutionalization raises the same issues that dein- stitutionalization raised about the lack of community support for people being released into the community that pre-existed COVID- 19. Emergency funding must be directed to municipalities and social 49. “People Living in Developmental Services Group Homes Need Access to Essential Support Persons” (7 May 2020), online: ARCH  Disability  Law  Centre <CTVarchdisabilitylaw.ca/resource/arch-bulletin-on-covid-19-people-living-in- developmental-services-group-homes-need-access-to-essential-support-per- sons/>. 50. “B.C. Updates Policy on Hospital Visitors After Outcry Over Disabled Woman’s Death”, CBC News (19 May 2020), online: <www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british- columbia/b-c-updates-policy-on-hospital-visitors-after-outcry-over-disabled- woman-s-death-1.5576316>. 51. Tess Sheldon, Karen Spector & Sheila Wildeman, “Viruses Feed on Exclusion: Psychiatric Detention and the Need for Preventative Deinstitutionalization”, Ricochet Media (12 April 2020), online: <ricochet.media/en/3038/viruses-feed-on- exclusion-psychiatric-detention-and-the-need- for-preventative-deinstitutional- ization>. 52. Oliver Lewis, “Why Social Workers Should be Aiming to Get Residents Out of Care Homes During the Pandemic”, Community  Care  (21 April 2020), online: <www.communitycare.co.uk/2020/04/21/social-workers-aiming-get-residents- care-homes-pandemic/>. 53. Bazelon Centre for Mental Health Law, “During the Pandemic, States and Localities Must Decrease the Number of Individuals in Psychiatric Hospitals, by Reducing Admissions and Accelerating Discharges” (15 April 2020), online (pdf): Bazelon Centre for Mental Health Law <www.bazelon.org/wp-content/ uploads/2020/04/4-15-20-BC-psych-hospitals-statement-FINAL.pdf>.