Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (2008) 14: 265-275. doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.106.003103
© 2008 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Disability rights and mental health in the UK: recent developments of the Disability Discrimination Act

Liz Sayce and Jed Boardman

Liz Sayce is Chief Executive of RADAR (the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation), based in London, and a member of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and the Disability Committee of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Previous posts include Director of Policy and Communications with the Disability Rights Commission and Policy Director with Mind. She was a member of the government’s Disability Rights Task Force 1997–1999. Jed Boardman is a consultant psychiatrist with the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (Lordship Lane Community Mental Health Team, 20–22 Lordship Lane, London SE22 8HN, UK. Email: jedboard{at}atlas.co.uk) and a senior lecturer in social psychiatry in the Health Service and Population Research Department at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. He was Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Working Group on Employment Opportunities for People with Psychiatric Disabilities. He is now Chair of the College’s Social Inclusion Scoping Group.

The Disability Discrimination Act, passed by Parliament in 1995 and amended in 2001 and 2005, covers people in Britain with physical or mental impairments that have a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. The Act has been important in setting a framework for good practice and it can stimulate more systemic change through formal investigations of organisations or whole sectors, and through the Disability Equality Duty, in force since December 2006. The Disability Discrimination Act has implications for people working in mental health services when they are considering employment and educational opportunities for service users, and when they are considering how to redress systemic disadvantage, including inequalities in physical health.




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WE NEED TO CHANGE THE ATTITUDES
DR Nazar Afif Mansour
Advances Online, 3 Sep 2008 [Full text]