LOONSCAPE SOCIAL EXCLUSION FORUM
PUTS THE FINGER ON FINANCIAL SERVICES

-Mental Health Service Users Asked To Comment
On Exclusion From Financial Products & Services –

London, 24th June 2003. Loonscape, the online community dedicated to improving access to financial products and services for the mental health sector, is setting out to find examples of best and worst practice amongst banks, building societies and others servicing the needs of users of mental health services, their families and carers. Today it launches the Loonscape Social Exclusion Forum as a vehicle for gathering evidence which it plans to submit to the Government’s Social Exclusion Unit as part of its wider consultation on mental health, launched in May this year. The Forum is being co-ordinated by Peter Campbell, mental health system survivor and founder of ‘Survivors Speak Out’.

Survivors of the mental health system are being asked to share their experiences and opinions of financial services such as banking, mortgages and insurance. “We want to explore the accessibility and adequacy of key financial services for people with mental health problems,” said Dr Peter Barham, co-founder of Loonscape. The site also strongly supports improved access to jobs and social enterprise opportunities for mental health service users, and challenges businesses to think about the mental health sector as a potentially powerful consumer group which can exercise choice.

“This exercise is the first systematic attempt to find out more about what is actually happening on the ground to people with mental health issues who are trying to access services which are fundamental to getting on with life outside the cycle of dependency on welfare benefits. Our experience is that mental health issues still too often mean being excluded from mainstream financial services which others take for granted. This discrimination can often be subtle and insidious and we are already gathering some compelling examples,” said Dr Barham.


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Loonscape.com , which Dr Barham founded with Vyvyan Kinross in 2000, is gathering momentum, with interest being registered from within the UK and as far afield as the US, Canada, Japan, Singapore and India. “We have made real progress, and interest in what we are trying to do is growing. However, our main goal remains to partner with a suitable organisation to offer a range of financial products and services which are tailored to mental health service users and the community around them, including professionals, carers and family. We will be stepping up our search this year and the Forum is an important part of articulating an evidence based approach to this,” he said.

The Loonscape Social Exclusion Forum plans to submit its evidence to the Government by the end of the consultation period, on 5th September. Those who wish to contribute or share
their experiences are invited to do so by e-mailing:  peter@loonscape.com or through the ‘Speak Out!’ section of the site, which can be accessed at www.loonscape.com.

ENDS

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Dr Peter Barham, Tel: 0207 289 4026
Vyvyan Kinross: Tel: 0208 994 2939

NOTE TO EDITORS:

· Significant mental health problems affect around one in six people at any one time, and nearly one per cent of the population has at some time received a diagnosis of schizophrenic or manic depressive illness.

· The Government questionnaire can be accessed at: www.socialexclusionunit.gov.uk and clicking on Mental Health & Social Exclusion.

· Loonscape.com is a property of Paddington Publishing Ltd.


Ref: msoffice/word97/loon/surveyrelease1.doc