Leading mental health charity Rethink today (September 27) called for immediate government action to save the lives of thousands of people with schizophrenia after a damning report on health inequalities from the Disability Rights Commission.

The DRC report found that people with severe mental illness were more likely to get killer diseases, get them younger, and more likely to die of them within 5 years. Despite this pattern of early death, people with severe mental illness are less likely to get some standard, evidence based checks and treatments.

Rethink chief executive Paul Jenkins, who sat on the DRC inquiry panel, said: “The end result of this institutional discrimination is that people with severe mental illness die on average 10 years younger than the general population.

For more information click below or visit the Disability Rights Commission at:
http://www.drc-gb.org/ to get the report.

Simon
Viewpoint Webteam

SOURCE: RETHINK.ORG