corrections

Poverty and Mental Illness

Institution

Name

Tutor

Course

Date

It has been noted that the people with mental illnesses mostly lives in the chronic poverty especially the African Americans. Conversely, poverty can be depicted as a significant risk factor especially to the poor physical as well as mental health. The relationship which has been found to exist between poverty and mental illness are perceived to be both straightforward and at the same time complex. In this regards, Understanding this broader context can be presumed to be the key to addressing poverty which in turn will lead to the promotion of the mental health and most importantly supporting the recovery of persons with mental illness emanating from poverty.

Poverty can be expressed as the lack of adequate income to provide for the basic requirements of an individual's life, and which are considered to be consistent with the norms of the society in which an individual dwells in. Poverty has been found to involve more than just the inadequacy in income since it also entails the exclusion of an individual from accessing an essential goods and services such as the meaningful employment which brings about decent earnings and most importantly the adequate and affordable housing. This will imply the safe neighborhoods with public amenities such as the health and well-being inclusive of the social networks and basic human rights will have opportunities to live a good life (Giffords & Garber, 2014).

The measurement of poverty is mainly based on the individual’s incomes and their consumption levels. The people who are generally considered to be poor are those who’s consumption and their income levels fall below the poverty line. The poverty line is described as the minimum level which is deemed to be necessary for an individual to meet basic needs.  Notably, poverty has been found to have significant implications for both physical health and mental health at the same time.

The gulf which exists between the poor and the rich is indubitably widening. Poverty has direct and indirect effects on the social as well as the mental and physical well-being of an individual. In this regards, it is very important to note that poverty and mental illnesses are closely linked. It is believed that poverty gives rise to psychosocial stress, which will indubitably lead to deteriorating mental health as well as to the higher mortality rates over time. However, it is also worth nothing that the association which exists between poverty and life expectancy is drastically declining and is no longer widely accepted.  This implies that the individuals who live in communities where it is underdeveloped with regards to the social and physical infrastructure, as well as the experiences of poor health which in turn, will lead to higher mortality, especially for the lower socio-economic class.  Therefore, poverty will cause stress and a lot of frustration and most notably the family disruption which can lead to mental illness development in an individual (Sederer, 2013).

Coherently, it is the poor who are mainly vulnerable to dangerous environments, if they are employed and earn little salaries, they often have stressful since they perceive their jobs to be unrewarding and additionally depersonalizing work as they lack the necessities and amenities of life. They perceive themselves as if they are not part of the mainstream of society since they are isolated from information and support.  In this regards, The association which is deemed to exist between socio-economic level and the risk of disease is perceived to be one of the most pervasive as well as enduring observations in the public health. It has been found that the lowest-income groups are more likely to experience negative effects of risky health lifestyles than their less poor counterparts.  Such maladaptive habits are not significantly undertaken with a harmful intent, but may be viewed as coping behaviors to afford comfort from stressful lives which are being experiences in daily basis (Funk, Mental Health and Poverty Project, & World Health Organization, 2010).

Moreover, individuals in lower socio-economic classes by the value of their life conditions are vulnerable to more stressors. Poverty is thus associated with many long-term problems, such as poor health and increased mortality. It as well leads to school failure which will further lead to crime and substance misuse. Such stressful situations will lead to depression which in turn will result in the development of mental disabilities and affecting the function abilities of the individuals which are affected by such poverty. In this case, poverty is attributed to such situations where an individual’s develop the mental disabilities especially the African Americans.

It is worth noting that it is not just the infectious diseases which have to demonstrate to be the powerful social-epidemiological correlation; it is as well cause to the mental conditions. This has been noted not to not only occur at higher rates in the poorest areas but also have been deemed to cluster together which usually lead to the disintegration of the inner-city communities. In essence, money is not a guarantor of an individual to have a normal mental health nor does its absence necessarily lead to mental illness. However, studies show that it is generally conceded that poverty can be both a determinant and a leading cause of the poor mental health in such population (Curtis, 2010).

The relationship which exists between the low economic status and the eminent incidence and predominance of mental illness has indubitably become increasingly apparent. Studies carried out indicated that there is a linear relationship between the experience of poverty and a high rate of emotional distress, as well as differential availability and use of therapy modes and amenities by different social classes. Many depict that the socio-economic class gradient with respect to disease can in most cases be explained by the application of the differences in health care access (In Ciment, 2014).

The complexity and interrelatedness regarding the factors such as poverty, health together with employment depict that the relationships which exist between social statuses as linked to the various aspects of mental sickness depict the importance of social status in understanding the mental illness and the other mental disabilities. Epidemiological studies carried our demonstrated an inverse relationship which exists between mental illness and the social class.  It is worth nothing that the mental disorders are consistently shown to be more common among people in lower social classes who are living in poverty. The prevalence of such mental disorders which as well including neurotic disorders and the functional psychoses such as the alcohol and drug dependence has been found to be used by such poor individuals to sooth themselves from the stresses. However, it does not become permanent solution as they find themselves depressed and led to mental abnormalities due to much thinking (Eaton & Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2012).

Employment status of the individuals has been found to be a major factor when it comes to explaining the differences and the prevalence rates of the patients diagnosed with the mental disorders, especially in adults. Unemployment significantly has been as well found to increase the odds ratio of such mental disorders when compared to the reference group.  Notably, it is found that it almost quadrupled the odds of drug dependence especially after controlling for other socio-demographic variables. Unemployment also roughly trebled the odds of phobia and functional psychosis. Such phobia will make an individual to develop fear which in turn cause depression.

Many studies have depicted that the individuals with low socio-economic status are vulnerable to the high prevalence of mood disorders. This implies that the prevalence of depression significantly as well as persistently existing in a higher with the individuals with the low socio-economic status population as compared to the other socio-economic status levels. The incidence of depression from such the study also depicted that the mental disorders have as well been higher among the individuals who were initially in the low socio-economic status group. This proves that the stress of poverty is indubitably the leading cause of depression. Additionally, depression can be associated with subsequent downward social mobility in which the lower end of the social hierarchy can result from disabling aspects of the illness especially affecting mental abilities (Thomas, 2011).

A positive relationship which studies has found to exist between the socio-economic status and vulnerability to mental disorder, with higher rates of vulnerability have been found to be high among the individuals who have lower educational as well as in the social achievement levels.  Notably, the social causation hypothesis which has been found to suggests that the stress is mainly associated with the low social position of an individual. In this regards, such exposure to social adversity and the lack of resources depicts that these individuals had to cope up with difficult. This will further contribute to the development of mental disorder. Patients in the hospitals as well with major depressive and mental disorders were more found to be attributed to poverty.

It has also been denoted that social class might have an impact on the psychopathological pattern of mental disorder symptoms. Patients who presented with somatisation together with the anxiety symptoms were more frequently from the lower social classes who are perceived to live below the poverty line. The amount of depression which is associated with economic hardship among the African Americans adults may depend on age and the amount of depression which such individuals have and are mainly associated with the economic hardship of such individuals. Economic deprivation together with the poor marital relationships is deemed to be very important risk factors for the occurrence and chronic degree of depression (Price & Walker, 2015).

The relationship also which exist between low socioeconomic individuals who are deemed to be poor especially the African Americans and their personality disorders which entail their mental illnesses has been found that personality disorders are more frequent among single individuals who are mainly from the lower socio-economic classes in inner cities.  Additionally, such studies focusing on antisocial personality disorder have depicted that the people belonging who are poor are vulnerable to mental illnesses due to much thinking which leads to problems in thinking (Valentine, 2015).

The U.S. Bureau of the Census carried out some studies, and it was found out that about four million persons who are between the ages of eighteen and sixty-four who live below the Federal poverty line were mostly diagnosed to be having a disability of some kind. Additionally, an estimated people of ten million within that age bracket as well have also been reported to have various mental disabilities but presumably did not live under the poverty line. Ultimately, it was found out that the persons who are poor and mainly have a presumed serious mental illness. In this regards, it can be noted that the poor are vulnerable to developing mental disorders that the individuals who are well off economically.

Notably, there is a significant relationship which has been found to exist between the individuals living in the lower social class and mental illness and mostly as regarded by the type, and most importantly the severity of the illness suffered and the type and quality of the treatment provided. Specifically, such kind of persons are the members of the lowest social stratum are deemed to have a higher incidence of presumed serious mental illness and thus received the least adequate forms of treatment if they received any treatment at all. This implies that the poor will mainly be affected by such as they will not have the funds to be used in paying the hospital bills to get normal (Rogers, 2014).

The confirmed the relationship which also have been found to exist between the individuals of the lower socio-economic status and the mental illness could be indubitably be identified trough the economic stress which acts as an exacerbating variable which mainly results in intra-family alienation together with the social disconnection. This is perceived as the physical and mental health which has been intertwined. This shows that it is the poor who are mainly affected by the mental disorders as a result of poor sanitation and a lot of thinking (In Cronin & In Mandich, 2016).

Consequently, the poor individuals who are living below the poverty line have been found to have various challenges which are associated with such situation which affects the minds of the individuals when it comes to making their decisions. For instance, at some times, such individuals have their family members befell sick, and there is no money to undertake them to get medication. This implies such an individual will have to think hard so as to get that money to pay the hospital bills and to take the sick to the hospitals. In this regards, it will lead to too much thinking which will eventually affect the functioning of the brain of the individual. This is mainly the case with the African Americans as they are deemed to have no employments opportunities and thus lives in abject poverty which in turn makes them to further think leading to mental disabilities as they have to come up with the plans which can get them off the poverty conditions (Piotrowski, 2010).

In conclusion, it can be noted that poverty is the main cause of major disorders especially the mental disorders. This is because, as the individuals are poor, they tend to think a lot regarding how they can come over such situation they are in. This will lead to depressions which will further develop to the inability of the brain to function due to too much thinking. In this regards, such individuals will start to behave in a manner that depicts that they have unstable minds. This means that they will have developed the mental disability disorders.

References

Curtis, S. (2010). Space, place and mental health. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Pub.