Claire Morgan 11/05/2026 Joe's SoapboxNews

Mental Health Awareness Week is an important opportunity to recognise the experiences of people with learning disabilities.

People with learning disabilities are far more likely to experience mental health difficulties than the wider population. This is not simply because they have a learning disability, but because of the barriers, inequalities and exclusion they experience throughout their lives.

People with learning disabilities are more likely to:

• Experience loneliness and social isolation.
• Face bullying, stigma and discrimination.
• Have less control over decisions that affect their lives.
• Live in poverty and have fewer opportunities.
• Experience trauma, abuse or harmful experiences in institutions.
• Face difficulties communicating.
• Experience frustration from not being understood.
• Be overprotected or have low expectations placed upon them by others.

It is important to understand that a learning disability and a mental health condition are not the same thing, although some people may experience both.

Many people with learning disabilities experience poor mental health not because of their disability itself, but because society does not include or value them equally.

Every human being needs to feel they belong, are loved and are valued. If you are less likely to work, have fewer opportunities to participate in mainstream society, and face additional barriers to relationships, family life and independence, it becomes much harder to develop a sense of worth and belonging.

These are not new issues. They are long-standing inequalities that society has repeatedly failed to address.

This is why I often speak about the importance of people with learning disabilities being involved in politics and public life. Politics matters because political decisions shape people’s opportunities, support and quality of life.

People with learning disabilities cannot afford to be invisible within political debate. Their voices — alongside the voices of families and carers — must be heard.

Right now, however, I am more worried about the mental health of people with learning disabilities than ever before.

The current political and economic climate is creating increasing fear and uncertainty. The same barriers to inclusion still exist, yet many people with learning disabilities are now also being pressured to move off benefits and into employment when suitable opportunities and support often do not exist.

Many people are frightened of losing the benefits they rely upon.

Even people with learning disabilities who are able to work successfully often depend on support such as Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to make employment possible and sustainable.

Too often, the benefits system fails to properly recognise hidden disabilities, including learning disabilities. This can leave people trapped in a cruel limbo — unable to access suitable employment while also struggling to secure the support they need.

There are also many people with more profound learning disabilities for whom employment may not currently be realistic or appropriate, yet they too fear losing essential support.

We also know of people with learning disabilities and autism who have been placed inappropriately in hospital settings because the services and support they are entitled to have not been available within their communities. These situations can cause enormous distress and trauma.

Too often, distress behaviours caused by fear, isolation and inappropriate environments are blamed solely on the individual’s learning disability, rather than recognising the impact of the circumstances they have been placed in. In many cases, the emotional trauma remains long after people leave these settings.

Members I speak to are deeply anxious about the future. There is a real sense of uncertainty.

It is vital that politicians and decision-makers understand the reality of life for people with learning disabilities.

Popular narratives around “benefit scrounging” and welfare dependency are inaccurate, damaging and unfair. They ignore the barriers people face and shift blame onto those who are already excluded.

These narratives must be challenged, alongside the wider inequalities that continue to prevent disabled people from being fully included in society.

There are many reasons why people with learning disabilities experience mental health difficulties, but most are rooted in social inequality and exclusion.

Too often, people with learning disabilities are blamed for circumstances created by society itself.

Since austerity and the financial crash, it has become increasingly clear that disabled people’s inclusion has not been treated as a political priority.

Unless society changes and creates the conditions for people with learning disabilities to live as equals, many will continue to experience limited opportunities, unfulfilled potential and poor mental health.

Anyone can experience mental health difficulties. But for many people with learning disabilities, the risk is made far greater by inequality, exclusion and lack of support.

It is not enough to acknowledge mental health for one week each year without addressing the conditions that so often contribute to it.

Some mental health difficulties may be unavoidable. But many are preventable and linked directly to inequality and exclusion.

That is the conversation society most needs to have.