Mental Health and the Social Model of Disability

Against a pale green background, and dark green floor, stand two Equal Lives graphic characters; a masculine-presenting young person with short, brown hair, and tanned/olive/brown skin and smiling broadly, and a feminine-presenting person with dark brown hair and brown skin standing with a guide dog in a neon yellow vest seated next to them. A speech bubble comes from the masculine-presenting person asking 'What is the Social Model of Disability?'. The person with the guide dog explains in a speech bubble 'The Social Model of Disability is a model created by Disabled people in the 70s and 80s. It proposes that people with disabilities are disabled by society, which means it is everyone's responsibility to disable barriers to independence. These barriers might be physical or via negative attitudes and perceptions'.

At Equal Lives we want to change the conversation around mental health. In the same way as other types of disability, many of the barriers someone faces when they’re living with a common mental health illness e.g depression, anxiety – are social barriers. Barriers put in place by society that, if removed, would allow an improved recovery, increased accessibility and inclusion and a better quality of life.

Part of the conversation around mental health needs to be removing the shame and stigma – that it is not a reflection of character or strength to be living with a mental health issue and that help and support should be made accessible to all.

We believe that increasing the awareness of the Social Model of Disability and supporting a world free from disabling barriers, more people who live with a mental health illness can free themselves of stigma, access support and ensure that support is right for them, barrier free.

Update - October 2020

240 people took part in our Mental Health survey. The results are very interesting and have highlighted areas for us to work on, on behalf of our members. As the results below indicate, for 47% of people surveyed mental health did not come to mind when thinking about disability. However, 56% believe those with mental health problems face discrimination. With 60% of people surveyed having not heard of the Social Model of Disability this is an area that we need to address. Through the promotion of the Social Model of Disability and raising awareness about mental health as a disability we believe we can disable more barriers for people living with mental health conditions.

A bar chart showing the results of the question ‘Thinking of mental health only, do you consider yourself to be a disabled person because of the effects your mental health has on your day-to-day life?’ posed to our members, 240 of whom responded. 20% of respondents said ‘yes’, 70% said ‘no’, 10% said ‘not sure’.

A bar chart showing the results of the question ‘When you think of the words disabled/disability - does mental health come to mind?’ posed to our members, 239 of whom responded. 47.5% of respondents said ‘yes’, 47.5% said ‘no’, 5 said ‘other’.

A bar chart showing the results of the question ‘Do you think people with mental health problems face discrimination in the same way that many disabled people do? E.g., things not being accessible’ posed to our members, 239 of whom responded. 57% said 'yes', 2% said 'no'.

A bar chart showing the results of the question ‘Have you heard of the social model of disability?’ posed to our members, 239 of whom responded. 60% of respondents said ‘no’, 32% said ‘no’, 8% said ‘not sure’.

A bar chart showing the results of the question ‘The Social Model of Disability says that disability is caused by the way society is organised, rather than by a person’s impairment or any differences about their health. Do you think this applied to mental health as well as a physical disability?’ posed to our members, 240 of whom responded. 56% of respondents said ‘yes’, 13% said ‘no’, 27% said ‘I don’t know’, and 4% said ‘Other’.

After looking closely at the data we plan to address some those areas by:

Raising awareness of mental health as a disability
Explaining and promoting the Social Model of Disability as a whole
Focussing on mental health and the Social Model of Disability
Supporting our members to raise awareness and tackle barrier to independence

What is the Social Model of Disability?

Social-Model-of-Disability-Infographic.j

If you would like to take part in the project or find out more please email us at membership@equallives.org.uk.