Social Inclusion - does it work?

Social Inclusion as a strategy in mental health presumes that the care support model is being ditched completely or at the very least, sidelined.

Strategic social inclusion presumes a readiness on the part of the client.  A readiness to engage with mainstream society and the mainstream world, outside of 'special' settings.  It also presumes that referrers including community psychiatric nurses and social workers understand fully that the individual client is ready to make the transition to mainstream.

Clients referred from secondary care are often disenfranchised by long years in the mental health system.  By the time they are being referred to mainstream, their ability to make real choices and real decisions is often impaired and damaged.  When clients are approaching mainstream, they are sometimes unable to make the leap.  Often it's because they have internalised the condition of something that Professor Pat Deegan's refers to as 'a career in mental health'.  That is, a career on benefits, isolation from mainstream society, a life without choices, goals or prioritisations.  A life where risk is minimised and chances are missed over and again.