10 March 2009
Evidence released today by the Mental Health Foundation shows the central importance of the poverty gap to both individual and collective mental health. At a time of public concern over excessive earnings and city bonuses, Mental Health, Resilience and Inequalities reveals how the gap between rich and poor affects the mental health of individuals by causing psychological and physiological changes.
It also argues that mental health is key to understanding wider health and social issues and that poor mental health can lead to a ‘social recession’.
Inequality leads to perpetual stress and biological changes in the body
The report draws together the latest research on the damaging effects of living in an unequal society. Inequality is now known to be a constant trigger to the ‘fight or flight’ response in human beings.
Over time, this perpetual stress is thought to get ‘under the skin’ and lead to permanently raised levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, as well as causing depression, higher blood pressure and other biological changes associated with stress and poor mental health.
These reactions can be explained by the highly social nature of human beings and their acute sensitivity to social position and status, says the report.
Mental Health, Resilience and Inequalities argues that mental health is the lynchpin between economic and social conditions. Poor mental health experienced by individuals is a significant cause of wider social and health problems, including:
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Low levels of educational achievement and work productivity
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Higher levels of physical disease and mortality
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Violence, relationship breakdown and poor community cohesion
But good mental health leads to better physical health, healthier lifestyles, improved productivity and educational attainment and lower levels of crime and violence. The central importance of mental health to these wider social, health and economic issues has been consistently underestimated in the past, says the report, which calls for a radical shift toward understanding mental health as a public health issue.
Global studies confirm inequality link
According to the report however, all attempts to improve a population’s mental health are limited by the level of economic inequality found in a society. Studies from around the world have been analysed to show that inequality is an important factor in predicting good mental health and wellbeing.
Children in the UK and the US – the most unequal societies in the developed world - show the highest levels of teenage pregnancy, violence, mental illness, imprisonment and the lowest levels of educational attainment.
Research also shows that groups with the same income levels will have better mental and physical health in more equal countries than in more unequal ones. This remains true for both high and low income groups.
Dr Andrew McCulloch, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said:
“We know that the United Kingdom has become a much more unequal place in the last few decades and we also know that people’s mental health seems to have worsened at the same time. Now we’re beginning to understand how these two trends might be linked, and how living with inequality can have very real effects on the mind and body. Given the huge social costs of poor mental health, it’s vital we begin to treat it as a public health priority.”
The report’s author, Dr Lynne Friedli, said:
“We have to face up to the fact that individual and collective mental health and well-being depends on reducing the gap between rich and poor. A large divide leads to a mentally unhealthy society, and many associated social problems. In the UK in particular, we’ve failed to acknowledge this link, preferring instead to blame the health and social conditions of those living on or near the poverty line on their own lifestyle choices. This in turn further stigmatises poverty, making disadvantage even harder to overcome.”
Ian McPherson, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health in England*, said:
“The importance of this report cannot be ignored. It underlines the need to improve policies and programmes at European, national and local levels to better the mental health and well being of populations. A change of approach is vital if we want to bring about good mental health and its associated benefits to countries, communities and individuals across Europe.”
Need for fundamental change to tackle ‘social recession’
Fundamentally, it is argued, the pursuit of economic growth at the price of greater inequality will lead to a ‘social recession’ that is not sustainable. The report says that reducing inequalities must be seen as an integral part of economic development, and recommends that, given the central importance of mental health to the wider functioning of society, all future public policy is assessed for its ‘mental health impact’.
Mental Health, Resilience and Inequalities has been developed in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (Europe) and is supported by the National Institute for Mental Health in England* (NIHME).
ENDS
Key findings:
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Good, positive, mental health and emotional well-being (which is not just an absence of mental illness) leads to healthier lifestyles; better physical health; improved recovery from illness; higher educational attainment; greater productivity, employment and earnings; better relationships with adults and with children; more social cohesion and engagement and improved quality of life.
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Mental distress in communities needs to be understood less in terms of individual pathology and more as a response to inequalities involving relative deprivation across society. Mental health problems result from the society people live in; they therefore require social, as well as individual, solutions.
Notes to Editors
For further details or to arrange an interview please contact the Mental Health Foundation press office 020 7803 1130 / 1128 or sloveland@mhf.org.uk (Out-of-hours 07766 124013).
*On the 1st April 2009, the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIHME) will be replaced by the National Mental Health Development Unit.
The Mental Health Foundation uses research and practical projects to help people survive, recover from and prevent mental health problems. We work to influence policy, including government at the highest levels. And we use our knowledge to raise awareness and to help tackle the stigma attached to mental illness. We reach millions of people every year through our media work, information booklets and online services. Registered Charity No: (England & Wales) 801130: (Scotland) SC 039714.
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