These are all related but it might not immediately be seen as such.
Disability is as result of inequality. In a perfectly equal society there is no disability. The society and culture is designed to ensure everyone is equal and has equal outcomes.
Less inequality reduces the impact of disability. Let's take the example of mobility disability, the impact of technology and legislation.
Wheelchairs significantly reduce the impact of most mobility disabilities. The disability was reduced and more opportunities for an average life were made possible.
It then became legislation for every large building or workspace to have ramp entrances and lifts. This again reduced the disadvantage of disability but by changing society and the requirements for buildings rather than altering the individual.
In mental health the disability is associated with stigma and discrimination. There are other factors but these play a large part and perhaps more of a part than in other disabilities.
This force drives the prognosis along with other factors. The problem is reducing stigma and discrimination is not generally associated with mental healthcare.
That is, at least, until Time to Change. This is by far the largest antistigma and discrimination campaign in the world. It is measured on changes in stigma and discrimination and its first run saw it half meet and meet its objectives on these two measures respectively.
It is now funded by the Department of Health for its second run. It is pioneering a new direction in mental healthcare and it's directly attacking the causes of some of the inequality and associated disability.
It is worth considering the WHO IPSS result. This highly regarded study showed people in poorer nations with schizophrenia did better than those in either the US or UK. There are many interpretations of this study and mine is it is an impact of stigma and discrimination. I may be wrong though.
Sent from my smartphone
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