Goals and Strategies

Activity has commenced in this area with the launch of our campaign “Breaking Glass Ceilings” in mental health. link

Only about 20% of people with severe mental health problems are employed, compared to 65% of people with physical health problems and 75% for the whole adult population. Even for people with more common types of mental illness, such as depression, only about half are competitively employed. Although some will choose not to work in order to manage their health, we know this is an enormous barrier for so many people with mental health problems – we have the highest “want to work rate” of any group of unemployed people with up to 90% wanting to work.

Work-related stress and mental illness have a huge impact on business, and mental ill-health affects one in four of the total population at some point in their life. Stand to Reason works to share best practice among organisations and provides consultancy on how to better manage mental health at work. This is an emerging area and organisations benefit greatly from learning how others have found practical solutions and accessed support.

Stand to Reason’s products aimed at achieveing cultural change in the workplace were launched at a conference held on 10 July 2008 attended by over one hundred and fifty employers leading edge employers. The keynote speakers were Lord Dennis Stevenson of Coddenham, Chair, HBOS plc and Dame Carol Black, National Director for Health and Work and the sponsors were Herbert Smith LLP, JP Morgan Cazenove and the London Development Centre and our media partner was the Times Newspaper.

A video of the conference will be available shortly on this website. Employers should email info@standtoreason.org.uk if they require further information.

We are already networking, lobbying and influencing politicians and senior civil servants at national and local levels. Stand to Reason is a member of the select steering group advising government on how to take forward the recommendations of Dame Carol Black the National Director for Health and Work in her report Working for a Healthier Tomorrow a review of the health of Britain’s working age population published in 17 March 2008.* Read Dame Carol’s full report here: link

Stand to Reason has also organised discussions with relevant stakeholders and other interested mental health charities, and was aleading player in a major all-party, multi-agency campaign for a broad anti-stigma campaign that has set its inital focus on changing attitudes to mental health at Westminster – to this day archaic common law rests “idiots” and “lunatics” from standing as an MP. By asking Parliament to “put its own house in order” we intend to ensure that they conduct a review of all laws that make discriminatory provisions against people with mental ill health and that these are removed.

While the symbolic value of allowing MPs with experience of mental ill health into Parliament is clear, this is just one of a series of changes needed to discriminating provisions which send an awful message to society about our competence. Company directors – both public and private; partnership deeds; magistrates, jurors; and insolvency practitioners are all subject to restrictions that do not apply to people with physical disabilities, conditions or impairments. If they did, would it not be extraordinary if we had provisions so a director with a physical impairment could be removed without the right to come back when they recovered?

One in Five MPs experience mental ill health and are forced to hide their problems

The report published on 16 July 2008 by Stand to Reason in conjunction with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health, with support from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Mind and Rethink has shown that one in five MPs surveyed has experience of a mental health problem but fears disclosing this because of the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health issues. Read the full report here. link

An anonymous questionnaire completed by 94 MPs, 100 Lords and 151 parliamentary staff has revealed that:

- 19% of MPs had personal experience of a mental health problem (17% of Peers, 45% of staff)
- 94% had family or friends who have experienced a mental health problem
- 86% of MPs said their job was stressful
- 1 in 3 said work-based stigma and the expectation of a hostile reaction from the media and public prevented them from being open about mental health issues.

Stand to Reason is determined to change the law forcing MPs to give up their seat for life if they are sectioned under the Mental Health Act for six months. By comparison, if an MP is physically incapable of working for six months due to a serious illness they would not be forced to stand down. The majority of MPs who responded thought this rule was discriminatory and urgently needs to be changed.

Stand to Reason first raised the issues set out in the report when we invited the former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik to the Houses of Parliament in January 2008. Mr Bondevik had declared his acute reactive depression openly to the Norwegian people, took some weeks off sick and was able to recover. He continued in office to the end of his term and was subsequently re-elected. He was amazed that had he been British he would have been prevented from standing for Parliament. Stand to Reason secured an excellent interview on BBC Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman (watch Mr Bondevik’s interview again here link) and has gone on to receive the support for our campaign from all three joint chairs of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health, Lynne Jones MP, Tim Loughton MP and Sandra Gidley MP, the Royal College of Psychiatry, Mind and Rethink. There is unanimous agreement that the perception that an MP would damage their career by being open about an experience of mental distress needs to be challenged.

Sandra Gidley MP said: “Greater openness at Westminster about mental health problems would have a significant impact in challenging stigma and discrimination. When the former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik publicly disclosed his experience of depression, it did not affect his popularity. He went on to be re-elected and proved that people who have experienced mental health problems can recover and manage a challenging job.”

The report shows that despite significant numbers of people working in Parliament experiencing mental distress, over half of MPs did not think they had sufficient understanding of the Disability Discrimination Act to make reasonable adjustments for a staff member with mental health problems and only 17% had received any mental health awareness training.

President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Dinesh Bhugra said: “Sadly, stigma is still widely prevalent. Mental illness comes in many forms across the age span, and is everyone’s business. Mental health and physical health cannot be parted. We applaud this effort to start talking more openly about mental illness. MPs occupy a privileged position in the public eye, and greater openness has the potential to lead to a better public understanding of mental health issues.”

The report recommends:

- the urgent need to repeal laws that prevent people with experience of mental health problems from standing for Parliament
- a review of laws that force MPs to automatically lose their seat if sectioned under the Mental Health Act for six months
- a review of all laws that make discriminatory provisions against people with mental ill health
with a view to their removal
- we encourage MPs and Peers to be more open about their experiences of mental health problems and to introduce a protocol that would support individuals to be transparent about dealing with mental health issues in public life
- we ensure that MPs, Peers and staff have the opportunity to undertake mental health awareness training
- we ensure that the health check offered to MPs includes a discussion with a relevantly trained clinician on mental health issues.

Watch coverage BBC Newsnight coverage of the report link

Clearly stigma and discrimination are the products of ignorance and fear and we plan to educate the public by increasing the visibility of positive human stories of recovery in mental health. In addition, we plan to pilot attractive programmes for school children with participation from members with skills or backgrounds that will reach out to young people eg. teachers, musicians, actors and sports people.

We are working closely with Prof. Graham Thornicroft our medical patron at the Institute of Psychiatry, KCL London. We plan to develop a model for measuring the reduction in discrimination and stigma and the impact of our interventions in the “psychiatric encounter”. In particular we hope to demonstrate: