Exploring the Potential of a Rights-Based Approach to Work and Social Inclusion for People with Lived Experience of Mental Illness in Ghana.

Much of the focus on human rights and mental health in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has been on protection from coercion and abuse and on expanding access to mental health services, rather than on promoting and protecting social and economic rights. Despite the importance of work for mental health, there has been very limited consideration of the relationship between work and mental health in LMICs. This paper draws on ethnographic and participatory research in urban and rural sites in Ghana to illustrate the meanings and value of work, as well as experiences of support, exclusion, and discrimination, among people with lived experience of mental illness in Ghana.