The article is a voice in the debate regarding the effect of deinstitutionalisation on of the lives of dependent people who require care: children without parental care (foster children and those deprived of their parents’ care), people with disabilities and people experiencing mental health crises, and the elderly needing long-term care. The article is both illustrative and review-based. It uses historical knowledge and the results of comparative studies, as well as the knowledge of the practice of the functioning of care institutions for many categories of dependence not only in Poland but also in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It draws attention to the limitations of the deinstitutionalisation process and the necessary preparation of local authorities and local communities to create conditions for taking dependent people from large institutions of collective living to smaller ones, open to the support of local social communities. It draws attention to the fact that deinstitutionalisation policy is in fact a long-term process of re-institutionalisation, which may be socially beneficial under defined conditions, but requires investment outlays for transformations, renovations and, to some extent, for new investment of social infrastructure.