Harassment and discrimination faced by people with psycho-social disability in health services A European Survey

Supported by the European Commission, DG Employment and Social Affairs

The project Harassment and Discrimination faced by people with a psychosocial disability in health services was organised in the framework of the Community Action Programme to combat discrimination 2001-2006, and was funded by the European Commission - (EC) - Employment and Social Affairs DG.

Introduction

Today discrimination of people with mental health problems is one of the major causes of social exclusion.

People with mental health problems or psychosocial disability are not a small minority. They represent 10 % of the total population. This means ± 45 million people in the European Union.

People who have experience of mental illness have all experienced discrimination. They may be denied jobs, accommodation, relationships, social dignity, adequate health services, basic human rights. Their families and the people who try to help them often experience this same discrimination due to the taboo and stigmatisation. This causes pain, distress, long term damage and social exclusion from the society.

The project was carried out in several phases :

• A preparatory phase was concluded in March 2002.
• Between September 2002 - January 2003, a first step was developed, which consisted in increasing the knowledge on discrimination in the health sector.
• Between February 2003 and May 2003, mental health organisations and (ex-) users/relatives organisations organised focus groups in collaboration with health professionals.

During the first year, Mental Health Europe, its national partners and experts investigated and tried to find ways to tackle the harassment and discrimination that people with psychosocial disability face in the field of health services (general health care services and mental health care services) because of their mental health problems.

The main objective of year 2 (September 2003-August 2004) of the second phase of the project was to raise awareness about discrimination faced by people with mental health problems in health care services as well as to develop and to promote strategies to combat discrimination, based on the results of the first year.

The main objective was to start the development of tools to prevent and to tackle discrimination for selected target groups: the user movement, family organisations, the disability movement, (mental) health workers, politicians and policy makers.

The following tools were developed in the scope of the project :

• A training pack for (mental) health professionals :
  download the training pack (in English, pdf, 100KB)
• Recommendations aimed at policy makers :
  download these recommendations as Word documents, available in English (2,3MB), in French (1,3MB), in German (1,5MB), in Spanish (1,5MB) and in Dutch (1,0MB)
• Drafting of a poster/brochure with information on where to seek for help when being discriminated.
  Download these documents as PDF files : the poster in English (152KB) and the brochure in English (256KB), the poster in French (?KB) and the brochure in French (?KB), the poster in German (156KB) and the brochure in German (268KB), the poster in Spanish (152KB) and the brochure in Spanish (80KB), the poster in Dutch (152KB) and the brochure in Dutch (256KB)
• A booklet with examples of best practices from Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom :
  download the Best practices booklet (in English, Word document, 520KB)

These documents represent the views of the partners in the project and do not necessarily reflect the position or opinion of the European Commission. The European Commission is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

On Friday, 23 April 2004, the European seminar was organised in Brussels. It was a very positive and fruitful one-day seminar with very good opportunities for an interesting exchange of ideas between representatives who had come together mainly from the five countries of the project (Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and the UK) but also from Belgium, Greece and Malta.

The partners have also organised national seminars in their own countries in order to disseminate the project and its findings.

Project leader :

Mental Health Europe-Santé Mentale Europe

Partner organisations :

Pro Mente Austria - represented by Pro Mente Salzburg
Cliëntenbond (NL) - an (ex-)users organisation
FEAFES (E) - a family organisation
Mind (UK) - a National mental health association
Bundesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener (D) - German organisation of (ex-)users and survivors of psychiatry

Download the full contact details for the Partners (Word document, 24KB)

Experts :

European Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP)
LUCAS Institute (B) - a research and training institute

Download the full contact details for the Experts (Word document, 20KB)

Inventory of groups of (ex-)Users and Survivors of Psychiatry:

http://www.enusp.org/groups.htm

A Declaration has been drafted in the context of the project. If you wish to sign up to it, please click here.

Info: Mental Health Europe, Boulevard Clovis 7, B-1000 Brussels, Tel : + 32 2 280 04 68 - Fax : + 32 2 280 16 04, e-mail : info@mhe-sme.org

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