Forum Brief: Social exclusion drive

Caroline Ellis, public affairs manager for the Disability Rights Commission, said: "The Disability Rights Commission strongly welcomes the government’s new initiative to tackle the extreme discrimination and social exclusion faced by mental health service users and survivors.

"The government’s agenda echoes our strategic objectives for closing the inequality gaps in employment, education, health services and independent living for mental health service users and all other disabled people over the next few years and the agenda for change set out by our own Mental Health Action Group. 

"As the Social Exclusion Unit report points out, we will be working tirelessly with NIMHE and other partners to ensure mental health service users are aware of their rights under the Disability Discrimination Act and to take enforcement action, where appropriate.

"Central to the success of our efforts to tackle widespread stigma and discrimination will be the future Disability Discrimination Bill with its proposals for a positive public sector duty to promote equality.

"The opportunity must be seized to revise the definition of disability to remove artificial barriers for mental health service users.  People with mental health problems face the biggest hurdles in claiming their rights under the DDA because the definition of discrimination inadequately captures the challenges they face.

"We trust the government will respond positively to our recommendations on that score, recently echoed in the report of the Joint Committee on the Draft Bill."

Forum Response: SANE

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of SANE, said: "Although we welcome this report, we are concerned that it comes with under £2 million of funding.

"It is no good expecting the public to change their attitudes and employers to take risks while so many mentally ill people are given inadequate treatment and care.

"The government's ambitions may help the Treasury to reduce the 900,000 on Incapacity Benefit, but without funding and a radical change in the benefits system, good initiatives will do little to encourage employers and may put even more pressure on those with severe and relapsing mental illness."