Improving services and support for older people with mental health ...

Improving services and support for older people with mental health problems
In Scotland a separate Human Rights Commission is being established and the CEHR
will work only on equality. In Northern Ireland these functions are already fulfilled by an
Equality Commission and a Human Rights Commission.
There is concern that age equality will be marginalised in the CEHR’s work. Progress
on tackling discrimination in the six equality areas has been uneven, partly because of
the incremental development of discrimination law over the past thirty years. Tackling
age discrimination through legislation has been slow compared with steps taken in
relation to race, gender and disability, and more recently in relation to sexual orientation,
and religion and belief.
Currently, age discrimination legislation applies only to employment and training. A
duty on public bodies to promote age equality exists in Northern Ireland, as part of an
integrated public sector duty, but not elsewhere in the UK. Yet there are duties on
public bodies to promote equality for race, gender and disability.
The Discrimination Law Review (DLR) is examining the case for a Single Equality Act
which would consolidate and simplify existing discrimination law and possibly extend
protection to areas where none currently exists, such as age discrimination in goods,
facilities and services. The effectiveness of a public sector duty covering age would be
considerably strengthened if the Single Equality Act included new legislation to tackle
age discrimination across all areas of goods and services, including mental health
services.
The DLR has raised the possibility of creating an integrated public sector duty to
promote equality across all six equality areas, including age. This option would provide
a framework for tackling inequality and promoting equality of opportunity for older
people with mental health problems.
We need a better understanding of the multiple and overlapping forms of discrimination,
including age discrimination and discrimination against people with mental health
problems. Many hope that the Single Equality Act will improve the legal tools for
tackling multiple discrimination. The CEHR will also have a role in promoting a better
understanding of multiple discrimination.
3.2 Age discrimination
Age discrimination is the most common type of prejudice experienced by people aged
55 and over in the UK. 172 The Inquiry’s first report found that age discrimination affects
all aspects of older people’s lives and has a negative impact on their mental health and
well-being. 173
Age discrimination against older people may be defined as any ‘action which
adversely affects the older person because of their chronological age alone’. 174
n
Direct age discrimination is unequal treatment on grounds of age that
cannot be justified. An example is an upper age limit on services that
disadvantages people over 65.
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