Poverty and Mental Health: the Work of the FOCUS on Mental Health Consortium
| Date | 01 September 2001 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200100025 |
| Pages | 17-20 |
| Published date | 01 September 2001 |
| Author | Simon Lawton‐Smith |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Focus on…
The Mental Health Review Volume 6 Issue 3 September 2001 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 2001 17
Poverty and Mental Health:
the Work of the FOCUS on Mental
Health Consortium
Simon Lawton-Smith
Head of Public Affairs
MACA (the Mental After-Care Association)
OCUS On Mental Health is a UK consor-
tium, founded in 1993, which comprises some 25
representatives of leading UK groups with an interest
in mental health. Its overall aim is:
■to help create a positive climate of opinion
towards mental health and combat the fear and
anxiety attached to mental illness
■to stimulate communication and collaboration
between groups working in mental health
■to co-ordinate events involving member organi-
sations which are beyond the organisational
capacity of individual members of the group
■to organise and advise on concrete initiatives,
aimed at promoting and improving the image of
mental health.
Background
‘All in all I find the experience of being on a low income
degrading. I feel I am being punished for being ill and as if it
is all my fault, which in turn makes me more depressed’
(User of mental health services, FOCUS survey, 2001).
It was in the winter of 1999 that FOCUS first thought
of undertaking a programme of work on poverty and
mental health. The consortium was looking for an
issue relevant to people working in the field of mental
health, policy-makers and people with mental health
problems.
Poverty was a clear front-runner. Lack of an
adequate income is an obvious hardship for people
with mental health problems, a great many of whom
Fare economically inactive. Poverty disempowers them
not only in relation to those who provide services to
them, but to the community as a whole. The issue
fitted well with wider government activity to tackle
social exclusion, poverty and discrimination and the
publication of the National Service Framework for
Mental Health (Department of Health, 1999).
The primary aims of the work programme were:
■to raise awareness of the impact of poverty on
people with mental health problems, and its
contribution to stigma and social exclusion
■to ensure that issues around low income,
benefits and poor employment prospects are
taken fully into account in decisions on mental
health policy and practice.
The Department for Education and Employment
agreed to fund the work under its See The Person
campaign, launched in June 1999 to challenge miscon-
ceptions and stereotypical thinking about disabled
people and to illustrate the contribution that disabled
people can and do make.
FOCUS established a small Poverty Sub-Group to
take the work forward. This comprised representatives
from Mental Health Europe, the Mental Health
Foundation, MINDLINK, MACA, the Sainsbury
Centre for Mental Health and MIND.
Creating a resource pack
FOCUS commissioned a literature review of recent
research and service practice around poverty and
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