Mental Health and the Law

Discrimination can be direct and indirect.

Direct discrimination might be discounting someone diagnosed with anxiety at a job interview, despite them being the most qualified candidate.

A policy, organisation or person indirectly discriminates if it treats everyone the same, but this makes things harder for those with a protected characteristic, and without a good business reason. An example might be banning braids or dreadlock hair styles, as whether this impacts someone is more likely to be linked to race, and it would be hard to justify it as an essential business need.