LIFEBRIDGE: Bridging life transitions for independent living and inclusion of persons with disabilities

For persons with disabilities, the hardest moments are often the transitions: leaving school, leaving a care institution, leaving hospital, or growing older with a disability. At each of these points, support is organised by age group and by service, so it often stops just when people need it most. Families fill the gap, health risks build up, and the move towards independent living slows down or reverses.

LIFEBRIDGE treats these transitions as the place where independence is won or lost. Working with persons with disabilities, families, care professionals and public authorities, the project will co-design, test and evaluate a Transition Support Model that follows the person rather than the service. It combines three elements: a shared Independence Pathway Plan, owned by the person; trained Peer Navigators, themselves persons with disabilities, who accompany each transition; and an accessible self-care and prevention companion, designed in easy-to-read and multi-format versions.

The model will be tested in six Living Labs, including Cyprus, covering three life transitions and all four disability types. LIFEBRIDGE will produce evidence on what keeps people healthy, connected and in control of their own lives, and will give public authorities practical tools to support the move from institutions to community living.