Dalla vita familiare alla vita indipendente.

In the literature concerning mental disability there are numerous contributions, dedicated to the necessity of guaranteeing an early educational strategy in subjects who are still at a developmental stage. However, up to now there have been few studies which have focused on the disabled adult, through a specific pedagogical approach which takes into careful consid- eration the person as a whole. Dealing with the theme of an independent life and freedom, in a lateral sense, of the disabled means, first of all, un- derstanding the need to plan education aimed at growth, the development of the self and autonomy. To guarantee this it is necessary to adopt a new approach and know how to “look beyond the horizon”: beyond the school, beyond present time, the immediate, beyond the difficulties and obstacles such an educational approach could give rise to. This translates into an attention towards all those reflections which today are summarised in the formula “During us”, referring to that complex of actions planned and put into practice in favour of the mentally disabled subject. It is a priority to abandon a perspective based on welfare underlying the “After us” philosophy, and appeal to construct scenarios of independent life, both as an answer to the unavoidable time when there is no longer family support, and as the right of the disabled person to plan life as an adult.