World Mental Health Day: Inequality and mental health should be part of the same conversation

Mental health and inequality have become two of the biggest conversations in recent years, which is why the 2022 theme for World Mental Health Day (October 10), “making mental health and well-being for everyone a global priority”, is so apt.

Joining this conversation makes sense, as global inequality and mental health continue to be overlapping issues, across societies and across our individual lives.

Black people are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act than whites, figures from the NHS (UK National Health Service). One in eight LBGT people have experienced some form of unequal treatment by health care staff, notes charity Stonewall.

Unemployment, low income and disability are some of the inequality-related factors that correlate with a higher likelihood of experiencing mental health problems such as depression, according to a recent report from the US Office for National Statistics in the UK.

“We often put off seeing the connection between one part of life and another,” says Brian Dow, deputy CEO of the charity Rethink Mental Illness. “It makes us despair to think that actually a basic level of financial security is good for our mental health, good for our family life, good for our physical health as well.”

“Life is a series of connections,” adds Dow, “and the more connections wear and tear, the harder it is.”

We spoke with Dow about what mental health means in today’s unequal world and what’s coming next:

Why is the topic “mental health in an unequal world” so important?

It’s becoming clear, if anyone doesn’t already know, that we live in a very unequal world, whether it’s because of access to vaccines or because of the conditions in which people live that make them more vulnerable. The pandemic confronts those inequalities and exacerbates them.

With regards to mental health, we know that the impact of the pandemic is not only physical, there is a clear impact on mental health, as people have struggled with the effects of grief, isolation and fear.

For a long time, if a person had mental health problems, it was nearly impossible to get good quality care quickly and close to home. In the last six or seven years there has been investment and that is starting to change. However, it took a long time to get there and the pandemic came and increased the demand for more.

We’ve seen an increase in people seeking and paying for therapy, which in many ways is fantastic. But do you think there is still a lack of understanding about poverty in the UK and that paying for services is impossible for many people?

Yes, it’s all connected, right? On the one hand, it is very positive that, for example, access to early psychosis treatment is becoming more available. But there are still huge gaps and people have to rely on things like personal therapy. For the average person, let’s say it costs $67 – $110 [en promedio, una sesión]it is a very, very expensive form of health care.

Brian Dow says that financial well-being affects mental well-being

(Rethinking Mental Illness/PA)

Will we tolerate that as the standard for cancer? What if we say that 50 percent of people have to go to private hospitals and pay for it themselves?

Do you think this shows that we still don’t take mental health as seriously as physical health?

Interesting if detailed, because you could say there have been changes in the last decade. Yesterday I was walking my dog ​​and I was walking behind two people having a loud chat about mental health. That didn’t happen about five or six years ago.

So I think there’s a population-level understanding that we all have mental health and mental health is something to be concerned about, and that’s a good thing.

But where we haven’t made much progress are the more serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, psychosis, possibly bipolar disorder, personality disorders – there’s still a lack of understanding of what that means and, in turn, people don’t always have access to the treatment they’d like to receive. .

Do you think addressing inequality is an important part of preventing mental health problems?

I think so, because many are circular. Some people are bound to end up with mental health problems, not just genetics (we don’t exist as a bunch of DNA in a vacuum), but let’s say someone has a pretty good education and it just happens for whatever reason. and have mental health issues, it happens.

But more often than not, it happens because people lived through very difficult childhood circumstances, they went through a pretty serious trauma, or later in life maybe they had problems with relationships or addictions, maybe they ended up in pretty tough financial circumstances. and [son] homeless. All of those things can be connected.

Does Rethink Mental Illness have a goal on how we can progress in a positive way?

Of course. I realize that it is quite easy in the voluntary sector to point the finger at the government or someone else and say ‘you have to do this’.

I think we people have heard of “think tanks”, but when we think of solutions and answers, we are more like “work tanks”, we have to see what the problem is, but also take action to fix it and fix it.

On a practical level, I think the answer revolves around what we call a “caring community”.

We’ve all experienced it, if you have some kind of health problem, feeling neglected a little bit, you have to overcome obstacles. Or maybe you are trying to change your broadband provider, you always have to overcome obstacles.

If you think about the average person with mental health issues, the kind of confidence and skills needed to navigate a very difficult situation (you could be dealing with debt or housing problems). These things can be very complicated and happen too often, you feel like structures govern themselves, unlike citizens and people. [que las necesitan].

What we’re trying to do is work with all the local players – charity providers, local health providers, other organizations that are present in a particular area – and make sure that if someone has a mental health issue, they don’t have to deal with the difficulty of accessing and finding out.

How do we organize society to put people first? The idea of ​​working in a spirit of generous leadership, to focus on the person, rather than the person having to organize around us, I think will add to the future of providing good health care that is beyond the NHS. .

Stuart Martin

"Internet trailblazer. Troublemaker. Passionate alcohol lover. Beer advocate. Zombie ninja."

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