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People with mental health problems regularly report experiences
of discrimination when seeking help from a public services.
Services like housing, benefits and healthcare can obviously
become especially important to people with mental health problems
who need to be sure they have reliable, accessible support.
But in many cases, having a mental health problem can actually
reduce people's chances of getting the help they need.
Housing:
Secure housing can be crucial to people's mental well-being.
Yet according to a report by Crisis in 1999, a third of
evictions by local authorities were of people with mental
health problems. People with mental health problems are
also dramatically over-represented in the homeless population.
Crisis estimates that six out of ten homeless people have
a mental health problem.
Benefits:
People with mental health problems can experience particular
problems in trying to access benefits. In a recent
case, a man with severe mental health problems actually
starved to death because the team processing his benefits
claim were unaware of his condition, and adequate guidelines
for dealing with mental health issues were not in place.
Health:
Surveys have shown that a third to a half of people with
mental health problems feel they have been unfairly treated
by general (non-psychiatric) health care services, including
GPs, hospitals and clinics. A common experience is not
being believed or taken seriously. |
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tell your story
if you have experienced discrimination on the grounds
of mental health. |
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read
james's story
for his thoughts on public services and discrimination. |
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