People with mental disabilities face stigma and discrimination in their daily lives. Promoting social inclusion is important in order to overcome the discrimination and social barriers that prevent marginalized groups from living a full and meaningful life.
In a recent article, Virginie Cobigo and Heather Stuart, Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Queen’s University, reviewed current research addressing the social inclusion of persons with mental disabilities. They identified four tools that can promote social inclusion:
- Law
- Community-based supports and services
- Anti-stigma/anti-discrimination initiatives
- System monitoring and evaluation
EENet has developed a Research Snapshot of their article, “Social inclusion and mental health”, Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 2010. The Snapshot is available at www.ehealthontario.ca.
Research Snapshots are brief, clear language summaries of research articles presented in a user-friendly format. To read EENet’s clear language summary of this and other articles, visit the EENet website atwww.ehealthontario.ca.
For more information on Cobigo and Stuart’s work on social inclusion, visitwww.mapsresearch.ca.