Personality disorder programme No longer a diagnosis of exclusion

Home > News > Department of Health > Work, recovery and inclusion Dec 17 2009

Work, recovery and inclusion

Work, recovery and inclusion Work, recovery and inclusion sets out a high level vision and series of commitments to support people in contact with secondary mental health services into work.

The key message of Work Recovery and Inclusion is that work is good for mental health and is central to recovery for those with mental health conditions. The long term vision is to radically increase the number of people from this group in employment by 2025, and to narrow the gap between their employment rate and that of disabled people generally.

(External) Download Work, recovery and inclusion (PDF 412KB)

Key messages

People with mental health conditions can and do work, with many thousands of people working in a broad range roles.
The employment rate for this group is unacceptably low, despite a high proportion of people saying that they would like to work.
Work, recovery and inclusion looks to a future where people who are in contact with secondary mental health services are helped to get jobs, where they are equally valued for their contributions to the workplace, and where having a mental health condition is not seen as a barrier to work.
The vision for this document is deliberately challenging and aspirational.
The intention is to bring about a sustained and significant step-change in performance and outcomes.
The case for action is strong, and positive changes are likely to benefit both the individual, as well as society more broadly.
For the individual, good work is beneficial for a person’s well-being. For the wider society, helping more people to return to work will help reduce the costs of managing mental health conditions to the economy.