ABSTRACT
Systematic reviews of large-scale epidemiological studies in the West find a consistent relationship between rates of mental illness and indicators of social disadvantage, including low income, education, unemployment and low social status (Fryers et al., 2003). Only 24 per cent of people with long-term mental health problems in England are in employment – a smaller proportion than for any other main group of disabled people (Office for National Statistics 2003), and in 2004 over 900,000 people claiming sickness and disability benefit reported mental illness as their primary condition (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2004). People with severe mental health problems are three times more likely to be divorced than those without (Meltzer et al., 2002). People with mental health problems are three times more likely to be in debt (Meltzer et al., 2002). Mental illness can create impaired functioning at home, in education or employment, and the restricted life opportunities this produces continue to contribute to poor mental health in an ongoing, self-reinforcing cycle. As a result of the cumulative effect of these associations between mental health problems and social disadvantage, mental health experts have looked increasingly to the concept of social inclusion as an analytical framework to conceptualise this dynamic relationship between social factors and mental distress (Williams 2003; Cameron et al., 2003; Sayce and Curran 2007).
