June 14, 2004

An investigation by the government's social exclusion unit has today revealed how millions of lives are destroyed by the stigma attached to mental health problems.

The social exclusion unit found increasing discrimination at every level of society against conditions such as depression and anxiety, which one in six adults experience at any one time.

The government said it wants to use the report as a springboard to get concerted action across government to address the problem. John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, is to demand 20 departments and agencies work to improve employment, housing and educational opportunities. Among a battery of initiatives is to provide an employment adviser for every person with severe mental health problems

John Reid, the health secretary, will follow up with a five-year strategic plan to tackle stigma and discrimination. It will include action by Ofcom, the media regulator, against the inaccurate portrayal of mental health issues.

The social exclusion unit found that only 21% of people with long-term mental illness were employed - the lowest of any disabled group. More than a million who wanted to work were jobless.

The unit said there were more than 600,000 adults in Britain whose main disability was mental illness, and estimated that the cost to the economy of missed employment opportunities was £23bn a year. People with psychological problems are the only group on incapacity benefits whose numbers are growing. A person signed off sick with mental illness for six months has only a 50% chance of working again.

The unit found that adults with a psychotic disorder were three times more likely to be in debt and live in local authority or housing association accommodation. They were also three times more likely to be separated or divorced.

Jeff Rooker, the minister for social exclusion, said: "Too often people with mental health problems do not have the support they need to participate fully in society. Yet we know that employment and community activities are important in promoting both mental and physical wellbeing."

The government's action plan will include:

* Providing an employment adviser for everyone with severe mental health problems

* Clarifying benefit rules for those wanting to work

* Removing unnecessary barriers to jury service and other community roles

* New guidance to housing authorities on lettings

* Improved access to financial and legal advice, and affordable transport

* Redesigning mental health day centre services.

The health minister Rosie Winterton said the aim was to ensure that people with mental health problems had "ordinary mainstream opportunities". She said the National Institute for Mental Health would lead a five-year programme to tackle stigma, which would include training people with mental health problems as spokespeople.

Stigma was identified as an issue by 85% of those who responded to the consultation.

Richard Brook, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, said: "Widespread prejudices - from being denied insurance to being shunned by neighbours - have a massive negative effect on people's quality of life. This report is a positive move towards starting to balance out some of these injustices."

Angela Greatley, the acting chief executive of the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, said people with mental health problems were "kept in a spiral of poverty and isolation by the prejudices that surround them". She said altering this would require "major changes to the way health services work, to the functioning of the benefits system and to the way housing is planned and managed".

Executive summary of social exclusion unit report (pdf)
Social exclusion unit report in full (pdf)

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