POVERTY AND MENTAL HEALTH

In today’s world, one of the most glaring issues we face is mental health and access to it. Mental health plays a very critical role in our life as it impacts the way we think, feel and act. It also determines how we handle stressful situations and empathise with others. An individual’s mental health is shaped by various, wide-ranging characteristics of social, economic and the environment we live in.

One’s socio-economic status plays a key role in determining their access to healthcare including mental health.According to various studies, the mental health effects of those in belonging to a low socio-economic status are wide ranging and affect them throughout their life. People who experience poverty are at a risk of developing detrimental health as developmental problems in their lives.

People living in abject poverty  lack financial resources to maintain basic living standards such as education, good housing and more, therefore they are more likely to be exposed to adverse living environments and are not able to access good quality health care. These stressful situations put them at a higher risk of developing mental disorders.

A WHO study conducted over the span of twenty years, found that those living in poverty form an overwhelming majority of people suffering from mental and psychosocial disabilities. The study also found that common mental disorders are twice as frequent in those living in poverty than in the rich. People are experiencing hunger, living in crowded housing or under a lot of debt are more likely to face those disorders the study further explained. Along with common mental disorders, people with a low socio-economic status have eight times more risk for developing schizophrenia than those with a higher socio-economic status. People suffering from schizophrenia are more likely to be unemployed or partly employed than others.

Lack of economic opportunities drives people deeper into poverty and are, therefore, unable to pay for the treatment they very much need. And in some cases, it is their mental illnesses that makes them unable to find work. Support systems are helpful in protecting those suffering from mental illnesses against the detrimental effect that poverty and weak mental health have on an individual but those living in poverty are  more likely than not to have those support systems Therefore, a person living in poverty is often caught in a vicious cycle of not being able to access mental health and suffering various mental health issues as a result of their economic status.

Poverty and its impact on mental health is not just seen in adults. Its implications start from a very young age and are shown to worsen with time if immediate remedies are not taken against it. Children who are born into poverty are at a higher risk of developing anti-social behaviour than children from families belonging to a higher socio-economic status. And if they continue to live in poverty then there are chances of their antisocial behavior worsening according to a research conducted by University of Alberta. The study also found that changes in income are directly proportional to changes in the mental health of the child. If a household’s income improves or increases in early childhood then the child’s mental health also improves. And similarly, if there is any decrease in income then it leads to increased chances of depression and antisocial behaviour in the child.

Children from low socio-economic backgrounds have much  higher chances of developing  anxiety or depression than their peers who belong to a higher socio-economic status. One of the major reason for that could be the environment. The environment and resources it provides to an individual impact their development and mental health from a very young age Neighbourhood deprivation has also been cited as a cause of the early onset of mental illnesses. Children in poor neighbourhoods have chances of developing anxiety, depression and phobias more than their peers in better neighbourhoods due to lack of access to mental health facilities. Children from  lower socio-economic backgrounds have higher chances of developing poorer cognitive performances in areas such as language function and cognitive control. Experiencing  poverty can be a stressful situation for anyone and can be detrimental especially during sensitive early development periods affecting biological stress regulatory systems and the expression of genes related to stress responses.Children who are born and raised  in poverty, the collective impact of poverty along with other several inequalities is clearly evident throughout their life. Additionally, poverty seriously hinders the bonding between the  parent and the child and reduces the quality of parenting which increases the risk for many child behavioral problems.Parents raising children in poverty, particularly mothers, also fear being termed  as ‘crazy’, worried that such a diagnosis may cause their child to be separated from them..

Global data indicates that only 2% of national health budgets around the world include mental health and 31% of countries have no specified mental health budget. This severe lack of funding by the government regarding mental health has a lot of detrimental impact on the mental health of those living in poverty. Children and families living in poverty face a lot of barriers in regards to access to mental health facilities.Those living in rural areas have to often travel long distances to access healthcare facilities so access to mental health facilities might seem some sort of a dream to them. So the government needs to  work towards making mental health facilities accessible and affordable even to those living in the most remote corners of the country. Along with that people with mental illnesses should  be specifically targeted for poverty reduction and development programs to help bring them out of poverty.