Search results for ‘Subject term:"mental health problems"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 1 of 1
Mental health, social exclusion and social inclusion
- Author:
- SECKER Jenny
- Journal article citation:
- Mental Health Review Journal, 14(4), December 2009, pp.4-11.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Based on a comparison of ways of defining social exclusion within the mental health literature, this article outlines the social systems approach to understanding social exclusion (where social exclusion is seen as a concept encompassing processes that involve the failure of one or more of 4 systems on which the sense of belonging in society depends: the democratic and legal system, the labour market, the welfare state system, and the family and community system), and uses it to examine the position of people with mental health needs in the UK. It looks at the relationship between exclusion and inclusion and provides a critique of the inclusion imperative in mental health. From the evidence reviewed, the author concludes that there is a need for policy initiatives to focus on tackling the structural barriers that work to exclude people with mental health needs as well as on challenging deep-rooted prejudice and stigmatisation that reinforce those barriers, and a need to be mindful of the context in which inclusion policies are implemented, the assumptions implicit within these policies, and the possible consequences of their adoption.