Over time as an activist in this aspect of health and computing I've noticed that the level of access of unemployed people of all ages, especially those that are unemployed or underemployed is very poor.
Both unemployed and mentally ill are at risk of having poor levels of web and technology access and use. The combination of both issues maximises this problems.
Charities do run schemes to try to tackle this issue but are overstretched for funding. Work programmes also look at these issue but only from the point of view of getting people ready for work. There are likely to be large numbers of mentally ill people (and those with other disabilities) that are not ready for work focused training. This group should not be left out of having training and assistance in getting and using technologies to access the web.
Isolation can make many mental health conditions worse. Web access would not solve this issue on it's own, what it does do however is to enable the sufferer to access websites of geoups that provide support and group based activities which can assist in tackling lonliness and depression.
Without more effort on the above solutions the at risk groups described above will be left as an isolated underclass.
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