Promoting Social Inclusion
| Pages | 5-12 |
| Published date | 01 September 2001 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200100023 |
| Date | 01 September 2001 |
| Author | Karen Newbigging |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
practical reality of day to day living. Sayce and Measey
(1999) found people diagnosed with a significant mental
illness to be ‘among the most excluded in society’ based
on an analysis which illustrates reduced employment
rates and prospects (Office of National Statistics, 1998);
limited access to financial services such as life insurance
and mortgages (Read & Barker, 1996); poor access to
appropriate physical health care; exclusion from
geographical communities and access to housing
(Repper et al, 1997) and that most people choose to hide
their psychiatric status (Wahl, 1995). A more recent
survey entitled An Uphill Struggle conducted by the UK
forum FOCUS on Mental Health (2001) shows that
people with mental health problems are one of the most
isolated and impoverished groups in society. One in four
of the people who took part in the survey stated they
had been unable to get help from mental health services
through an inability to pay for transport or childcare, for
example. They faced significant hurdles in trying to
return to employment, with many anticipating discrimi-
nation and ignorance. Only 15% of respondents were
employed, and 57% regarded their income as low. An
enquiry by Mind into social exclusion (Dunn, 1999)
depicts the difficulties people with mental health
problems experience in their daily lives on the basis of
evidence collected from over 300 witnesses representing
a broad range of perspectives – service users, psychia-
trists, employers, voluntary sector, professional organisa-
tions and soon. The main problems identified were:
■work: evidence of discriminatory practices, a
justified fear of discrimination, ill-prepared
employers and failure on the part of mental
health services to view promoting work as a
relevant and legitimate role for services
■education and training: little knowledge or
understanding of mental health issues in many
schools, colleges or universities, practical
support almost non-existent and a lack of infor-
mation about where to go for help
The Mental Health Review Volume 6 Issue 3 September 2001 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 2001 5
Promoting Social Inclusion
Karen Newbigging
Deputy Director
North West Mental Health Development Centre
Framework Feature
he discrimination and marginalisation
suffered by people with mental health problems has
been recognised for a long time and there is a growing
view that these are the fundamental issues which
need addressing (Hutton, 2001). The National Service
Framework for Mental Health (Department of Health,
1999) highlights the need for health and social services
to tackle stigma and discrimination and to promote the
social inclusion of people with mental health
problems, but there are doubts as to how effectively
this will be translated into action. A major reason for
the failure to tackle social exclusion is ‘that it is no-
one’s day job’ (Miller, 1998). In mental health services
this could easily be compounded by a degree of
ambiguity in policy and practice, which stress the
importance of social inclusion but are also concerned
with public safety and the management of perceived
risk. This article aims to provide a basis for practical
action by starting with the experience of exclusion by
people with mental health problems, exploring the
meanings of social inclusion and exclusion, identifying
some useful contributions to thinking about social
inclusion and considering what these might mean in
practice. It concludes, however, with the argument
that if the rhetoric of social inclusion is to be translated
into reality for people with mental health problems
then the ambiguities within practice and policy need
to be recognised, the reasons for exclusion made
explicit, and an acknowledgement that promoting
inclusion is necessarily a demanding endeavour.
The case for social inclusion
While the stigma and discrimination that people with
mental health problems experience has been known
and commented on for a long time there has been an
increasing focus on how this translates into the
T
To continue reading
Request your trial