Limiting MH support to certain cultural areas?

[Mindcultural]

I have today received this message below from a mental health support service for young people.

AIBU to think it’s completely wrong to offer support based on cultural diversity and would like to know how they decide who fits this criteria?

Hi,

I’m getting touch as you have recently made a referral to our Youth In Mind services on behalf of a child or young person.

Unfortunately, we are having to reduce the size of the team for funding reasons, so we now only have funding to support young people from culturally diverse communities, if this is relevant for the individual you referred to us, please can I ask that you complete this form forms.office.com and we will be back in touch accordingly.

If we are now no longer able to offer support to the individual you have made a referral for, please accept our apologies for this. Please feel free to keep an eye on our website for updated information regarding available services as we are always looking for new funding opportunities to allow us to reach more children and young people.

Apply and tick that they "identify" as culturally diverse or whatever they want?

It's a charity and they have been forced to tighten their eligibility criteria due to funding issues.

It's happening everywhere.

So why not white British children?

Wow, that'll feature in a Reform or Restore pamphlet soon.

It's a charity, they can provide mental health support to hamsters if they want. They chose a segment that aligns with their interests, which is people from culturally diverse areas.

Someone on my social media asked if I was sure it wasn’t some reform crap being circulated but I received it personally from the support service.

Because they clearly want to prioritise black and brown British children with what limited resources they now have.

Or are those kids not considered ‘British’ enough for you, OP

Not a charity I will be supporting again any time soon then, despite previously having done quite a bit to support them as our companies nominated charity.

Is the charity Leeds Mind? Because their annual report says they’re largely NHS-funded.

With the wording they're using, and given it hasn't always been their approach so is unlikely to be a part of their governing principles, that sounds like they could be in breach of the equality act.

Yes

Which support service is this from? I'm not asking you you to name your area, just the title of the support service.

On the one hand this refusal to help would seem unreasonable, especially if it came from a government organisation.

I'm the other hand, without more detail, some may think your post is a gunshot in the "culture wars".

The equality act applies to charities too. They can only restrict in the bases of race under fairly strict conditions, or they'll be illegally discriminating.

Yes, I would feel differently if it was a charity set up specially for a certain purpose, but this is a large well known Mental Health charity that as far as I have seen before was open to all.

That’s appalling.

It should be based on need.

I know it's beside the point but the trend to use 'diverse' as a euphemism for 'from a minority group' really annoys me.

So wait - on the form how are they defining culturally diverse? Is it every colour skin except white?
I am not sure how this is legal.

It’s Mind

It will be down to the funding criteria - they will most likely have been awarded a grant with the criteria that the money is spent on children from "culturally diverse communities". They may have applied for further grant funding which didn't have the same criteria but weren't successful in securing it. It won't be the decision of the charity itself.

Securing grant funding for charities is an absolute nightmare at the moment, with core costs hardly being funded, smaller pots and more restrictive criteria. The 3rd (now known as "civil society"), is plugging a larger and larger hole in public services, and expected to do it on less and less money.

And why saying they only have funding now for culturally diverse areas?

Culturally diverse areas don’t have a monopoly on young people with MH difficulties.

I smell bullshit, are you sure it’s not a Reform ploy?

Leeds Mind's vision is not restricted to any ethnic group. They may well be illegally discriminating. It might be worth asking for clarification on what basis they are doing this, given the equality act makes it tricky for them to legally discriminate.

What does it even mean? Does it include a definition? A list of postcodes?

Because they are considered to be least at need by the charity who is providing services? Because those culturally diverse groups are less well served by the other groups available to British White Children? Because an organisation is allowed to choose their priorities? Maybe just ask THEM why.

Securing funding is an absolute nightmare, I’m sure the people providing the service are banging their heads against a wall too.

I used to work in breastfeeding support, we had to hold the vast majority of our community outreach groups in areas with low breastfeeding rates - to try to increase breastfeeding rates.
Whilst this makes sense, it just meant that most of our mums were having to travel further to get breastfeeding support, and that few of the mums being supported at these groups were actually from the targeted groups.
The local culture was not to breastfeed and our bare bones service couldn’t do much more than help the mums who DID want to breastfeed.
But funding … 🙄

But they’ll be using money meant to go to all children to discriminate. A grant won’t be enough to cover all the charity’s costs.