Social Inclusion

Welcome to the Social Inclusion pages. At Develop this is what we are about; enabling communities and individuals to be mutually supportive through the application of person-centred knowledge and a genuine acknowledgement of the meaning of individual experience. The experience we seek is that warm feeling of being included as well as safety in the knowledge that our communities can become more welcoming and support all peoples' access to the best of life's numerous and increasing possibilities.

A great deal is talked about the socially excluded and how difficult it is for some people to get anywhere these days if they have a disability or are in some way different from the majority. In Develop we are less concerned with what makes things difficult or "them and us" politics, although we are out there working on these issues, than with what makes it possible for all of us to keep what we have and not lose our involvement in the world. Develop is working to make life easier, pleasurable, welcoming and supportive of experiences worth living. To do this we take a person-centred approach to retaining valued lifestyles wherever possible and where this has been lost to effectively promote the recovery of everyday independence of mind, body and spirit.

We are also about being part of things and not being set apart. Everything we do is some kind of attempt to bring people together for each others' benefit, mutuality and reciprocal betterment. This means we take local goodwill really seriously. For this reason alone we take part in a lot of local gatherings and meetings, conferences, workshops, lunches and group activities. It also means making time for valuable one to ones with local people, getting to know you sessions and bridge-building exercises that span the traditional mental health service and mainstream community divide! Develop is becoming part of our local community's life.

It is true that many people, and especially those with mental health issues will experience some degree of stigma and negative discrimination in their lifetime, but concentrating on this alone, at the expense of getting on in the world will not change things. The Develop approach is two fold. Being excluded through stigma and discrimination doesn't do anyone any good, in fact it can be very damaging, and so we have adopted a recovery approach, one which recognises the harm exclusion does but which concentrates on becoming included whilst addressing the healing needed for the wounds of exclusion. Person-centred approaches are then used to plan for an included future, bridge-building addresses support for individuals and communities and through the implementation of direct payments it is now even possible for people to direct their own care and support by employing personal assistants, artists to teach them to paint or coaches to enable them to return to work. The technology of social inclusion is now well developed but it remains poorly funded and is not yet practiced everywhere, but we are getting there slowly. Look through our inclusive practice pages for local evidence of this.

The real challenges right now are to develop partnerships that support inclusion. Partnerships that work involve person-centred, recovery-oriented mental health services, service users and their families and other community members especially the staff of the other institutions that support all our lives like employers, educators, landlords and mortgage companies, estate agents, faith groups, artists, sports associations, the police, theatres, banks, physical health services, galleries, utility companies, shops, cinemas, leisure services, charities, advice centres, community groups, tenants associations, community safety groups, insurance companies, volunteer bureaux, and the list goes on.

We hope that Develop will live up to its name in all these respects. Please browse our life domain pages and our inclusive practice pages and find out what social inclusion and mental health is all about. We hope you can find what you need, and if not, why not just email us at siforum@developbromley.com