CHOICE

The CHOICE project, led by Professor Gerard Leavey, seeks to improve the lives of people living with long-term mental health problems by tackling the fundamental health and social inequalities they experience. We aim to end the avoidable loneliness, discrimination, and poor health that many people with severe mental illness face. We will do this by opening access to the widest range of community assets – places, resources, and facilities that most people take for granted. The CHOICE project will develop new, creative, and integrative approaches to delivering better health and social opportunities to people with severe mental illness, approaches that can overcome the many barriers within a fragmented ‘system’ of care and support. CHOICE works with a community coalition of partners across all organisational boundaries - in the community and voluntary sectors, health and social care, education, arts, sports, and leisure - to harness and combine their strengths towards radical changes in tackling inequalities. CHOICE is funded via the UKRI 'Mobilising Community Assets to Reduce health Inequalities' program.