Mental health, social inclusion, and community development: Lessons from Bristol

Fieldhouse, Jon

Abstract

As community-based mental health services evolve, there is increasing awareness of the restorative potential of community participation and of its importance in promoting social inclusion. Many mental health service users are stigmatized by the segregated services they use as well as by the negative attitudes commonly held in our wider society. This article reports on a participatory action research inquiry in Bristol, United Kingdom, which examined the positive impact of mainstream community participation on mental health service users' recovery and social inclusion and how service users' experiences informed joint planning between mental health services and the learning community to promote social inclusion. Focusing on the significance of inter-agency work and highlighting the value of micro-level knowledge of the daily challenges faced by service users, it identifies ways of improving access to mainstream services. © Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal. 2012 All rights reserved.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Oct 18, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 12, 2016
• Journal: Community Development Journal
• Print ISSN: 0010-3802
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-2656
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 47
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 571-587
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bss028
• Keywords: mental health, social inclusion, community development, Bristol
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/943232
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bss028
• Related Public URLs: http://cdj.oxfordjournals.org/content/47/4/571.full.pdf
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Community Development Journal following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Fieldhouse, J. (2012) Mental health, social inclusion, and community development: Lessons from Bristol. Community Development Journal, 47 (4). pp. 571-587. ISSN 0010-3802 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bss028
• Contract Date: Feb 12, 2016