China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Poverty and health
Published in Sally Robinson, Priorities for Health Promotion and Public Health, 2021
Elisabetta Corvo, Sally Robinson
The social determinants of mental health include social, cultural, economic, political factors, living standards, working conditions and social support. All of these can cause poverty and can be worsened by poverty.
The Impact of an Online Post-Graduate Interdisciplinary Mental Health Programme on Graduates’ Confidence and Practice
Published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2023
Richard Lakeman, Brenda Happell, John Hurley, Dan Sullivan
The most dominant discourse or way of framing mental illness is via biomedical and psychological frameworks, which emphasise individual pathology and the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of individuals. Mental health services are consequently organised around medicine, resulting in the neglect of the social determinants of mental health and a failure to address systemic issues impacting well-being (Bemme & Kirmayer, 2020). Importantly this framing of mental illness has permeated into the university education of mental health professionals. There are few incentives to challenge the hegemony of medical views or approaches to addressing mental health through post-graduate education for allied health professionals. The university sector has widely embraced a neo-liberal stance towards education, with income generation being a high priority and arguably more important than knowledge generation or translation (Parker et al., 2023). The neat dissection of mental illness into disorders that are then married to selected treatments accommodates financially efficacious learning approaches through its simplistic assumptions that students need to be able to assess, diagnose and match medical treatments to such diagnosis. However, these approaches do not necessarily prepare graduates to work in profoundly flawed service systems or to build capabilities to meet the holistic needs of service users.
Racial discrimination and its impact on mental health
Published in International Review of Psychiatry, 2023
Meryam Schouler-Ocak, James Kenneth Moran
Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals understand the power of advocating for policies that are not directly related to mental health. Understanding of how social injustice and the social determinants of mental health ultimately lead to poor mental health outcomes and mental health inequities is very important. Thus, for example, policies that address the social determinants of mental health, including stable housing, unemployment benefits, access to healthy food, and ending the criminalisation of substance use disorders can help to dismantle structural racism and improve health outcomes. In this line, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals should commit to communicating with elected officials to help pass policies that focus on the social determinants. Cross-sector collaborations with stakeholders at various levels in the community are needed to establish equitable representation by vulnerable populations in positions of power and influence (both within the field of psychiatry and in communities) (Schouler-Ocak et al., 2021; Shim, 2021, 2020).
Contributors to Depressed Mood in Black Single Mothers
Published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2020
Rahshida Atkins, Rufan Luo, Mary Wunnenberg, Cynthia Ayres, Terri H. Lipman, Victoria Pena-Cardinali, Latisha Hayes, Janet A. Deatrick
As a whole, the majority of the responses referenced social/environmental factors accounting for 63.95% (n = 204) of all responses offered, followed by psychologic factors 31.97% (n = 101), and physiologic factors 4.39% (n = 14). Social determinants of mental health are social and environmental factors known to impact mental health outcomes at the individual and societal level (Compton & Shim, 2015). These determinants include poverty/income inequality, housing insecurity, underemployment, food insecurity, discrimination, social exclusion, poor education, and poor built environment (Compton & Shim, 2015). These findings add to the body of knowledge regarding the impact of these social determinants on the mental health of Black, single, community dwelling mothers whose responses matched many of these social determinants.