Despite public awareness campaigns highlighting the issues facing people with mental health issues and the actual fact that no one is proof against developing a mental illness, individuals with mental health problems are still facing unfair discrimination, prejudice and stigma each day of their lives, not just from members of the general public however conjointly from businesses, banks, employers and even when it comes to taking away an insurance policy.
The reality is, anyone folks will develop a mental illness, irrespective of our age, gender, location, occupation or social status. Really, the statistics show that at least one in four folks can experience some reasonably mental health problem within the area of anyone year. Mental health issues can be hugely diverse in nature and can vary from gentle cases of depression and anxiety to additional serious cases of bipolar depression and schizophrenia with the sorts of symptoms and the degree of intensity of these symptoms varying from person to person. However, there are issues to face in the outside world too.
Presumably one in all the most distressing aspects of mental illness is the isolation and social exclusion usually experienced by the sufferer purely as a result of ignorance and misunderstanding on the half of other folks and it is this that needs to change. If we have a tendency to think about insurance as an example, one thing that most individuals take with a pinch of salt, however not if you have got had a mental illness in the past or are plagued by a mental health downside at the moment.
The findings of a serious report on discrimination against the mentally sick showed that Insurance corporations will typically deny insurance or place exemptions on an insurance policy when there is a history of mental health issues, whether or not those problems existed many years ago and are not an issue. This applies to any sort of insurance and not simply life insurance either, travel insurance, mortgage insurance, employment insurance, payment protection insurance, all become more troublesome to obtain if you've got a mental health drawback or a history of mental illness.
This would appear to counsel that insurance companies as well as many others still don't perceive the problems or the facts surrounding mental illness or the knowledge just isn't obtaining through. As an example, mental health problems will occur as an isolated case in relation to a selected set of circumstances and once treated, will never happen once more, some varieties of mental illness are episodic in nature, and most people who get help for mental health issues do persist to steer full and traditional lives. Most likely the most necessary point is that just as a result of somebody is full of a mental health drawback doesn't automatically mean they create a bigger risk than anyone else. Insurance firms calculate their insurance premiums on the level of perceived risk, which is supposedly primarily based on medical evidence. Perhaps this is the area that needs to be addressed.
Thus what will you are doing about it? Definitely, if there is a case of unfair discrimination then it's potential to sue below the Incapacity Discrimination Act however in keeping with Mind, the leading UK charity for mental health, solely a tiny range of cases are taken out below this Act and of these, few are ever successful. Similarly, the Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB) report that the majority claims against payment protection insurance fail when mental illness is involved as it's a typical exclusion in several insurance policies.
It's not all doom and gloom though, folks do appear to be waking up to the fact that one thing has gone wrong somewhere and that individuals with mental illness deserve to own the identical rights as anyone else. Over in the USA for example, a study by the Mental Health America Association found that the majority of Americans believe that people with mental health problems should now not be subjected to discrimination by health insurance companies. In fact, some 96% of Americans believe that health insurance should conjointly cowl mental health. Here in the UK the government are tuned in to the issues surrounding mental health and exclusion and are tightening up legislation to guard individuals from unfair discrimination.
Within the meantime, we would all do well to recollect that mental health issues aren't solely common, they're treatable, and can affect anyone folks at any time. Till we have a tendency to insist that individuals with mental health issues receive the same rights in society as everybody else, the problem with insurance will persist.
Author Resource:
Madi has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Mental Health, you can also check out his latest website about:
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