Impact of Poverty and Social Exclusion on People with Mental Health Problems - Essay Example

Impact of Poverty and Social Exclusion on People with Mental Health Problems This essay is basically a deep explanation for the issues and dilemmas involved related to poverty and social exclusion, which people with mental health problems have to cope with in everyday life. The concept of social exclusion and poverty is now widely used in discussions about the nature of disadvantage, and there are ongoing initiatives to promote stable financial situation and social inclusion among those with mental health problems. This goes without saying that social exclusion can be a killing and extremely devastating sort of a tragedy for even a normal person, and people who are already mentally disturbed, they unequivocally need more support from the society, in order to make them better able to stand up and face the problems. Unfortunately, what we observe in everyday life is totally opposite of that. Rarely, any case is observed by us when the society strives to assist and support people with mental health problems. No doubt, there is a great deal of literature published everyday on the necessity of social inclusion, but its practical application is really very less. This paper basically aims to conduct a conceptual and methodological review of social exclusion, focusing initially on the origins and definitions of the concept and then on approaches to its measurement, both in general and specifically in relation to mental health. (Morgan 2007). Mental health is an area which is remarkably impacted by growing up in poverty. According to BBC News (1999), in the UK, World Mental Health Day is being coordinated by the Health Education Authority and its theme is discrimination associated with people experiencing mental health problems. The stressful situations that often accompany poverty, such as divorce, death, job loss, or drug addiction and even social exclusion, can create feelings of anxiety and depression that can last well into adulthood. Parents who are struggling to provide basic necessities are often unable to spend much quality time with their children, leading to low self esteem and lifelong difficulties forming strong relationships with others. Spending large amounts of time in poor quality daycare, a situation which is much more common among children in poverty, can also have a negative impact on a child's emotional health. Once they reach elementary school, children who live in poverty often receive a substandard education because they are forced to move frequently or attend under-funded schools. This further exacerbates their mental helath conditions and is one of the most troubling long term effects of poverty. (Hinders 2010). According to Morgan, social exclusion was increasingly used to capture the consequences of material deprivation in terms of restricted opportunities to participate in wider social and cultural activities. Paradoxically, many commentators have argued that the notion of social exclusion gained currency in UK government and policy circles during the 1980s and 1990s because it allowed the less politically acceptable language of poverty to be removed from policy debates. There is no single accepted definition of social exclusion. According to Howarth (cited in Morgan 2007), "poverty and social exclusion are concerned with a lack of possessions, or an inability to do things that are considered normal by society". However, most emphasize lack of participation in social activities as the core characteristic. In the mental health literature, social exclusion is poorly defined and measured. If social exclusion is a useful concept for understanding the social experiences of those with mental health problems, there is an urgent need for more conceptual and methodological work. According to Palmer (2005), before the 1997 Labor Government, the term "social exclusion" was rarely ever used when discussing social policy in the UK. Rather, the word "poverty" was generally used as an all-encompassing or general term to describe situations where people lack many of the opportunities that are available to the average citizen.Whilst low income was central to this notion, it also covered other factors relating to severe and chronic disadvantage. This refers to the critically important and devastating issue of social exclusion, which according to Hiliary (p. 15) is defined as, "social exclusion is a multidimensional process of progressive social rupture, detaching groups and individuals from social relations and institutions and preventing them from full participation in the normal, normatively prescribed activities of the society in which they live." When talking about social exclusion with strict reference to mental health, this fact is recognized worldwide that there is growing evidence of the global impact of mental illness. Mental health problems are among the most important contributors to the burden of disease and disability, coupled with ruthless ignorance by the general public, including friends and relatives. Disability not only affects individuals but also impacts on the entire community. The cost to society of excluding people with disabilities from taking an active part in community life is high. This means that social exclusion costs too much not only for those affected, but also for those unaffected by mental health issues. This exclusion often leads to reduced productivity and losses in human potential. According to World Health Organization (2002), in the United Kingdom, 80 million days are lost every year due to mental illnesses, costing employers 1-2 billion each year. People with disabilities, particularly psychiatric disabilities, face numerous embarrassing obstacles in obtaining equal opportunities and many legal, institutional and attitudinal barriers are the reason for stimulating and causing this exclusion. For people with mental illness, social exclusion is often the hardest barrier to overcome, since they are already distressed and vulnerable from inside, and is usually associated with feelings of shame, fear and rejection. That is because even in this modern world, mental illness is still regarded an unforgivable stigma, worldwide. It is clear from the above discussion that mental illness are capable of imposing a heavy burden in terms of human suffering, social exclusion, stigmatization of the mentally ill and their families and economic and financial costs. Unfortunately, the burden is likely to grow over time as a result of ageing of the global population and stresses resulting from social problems and competitiveness, including violence, conflict and natural disasters. There is increased evidence suggesting that people experiencing mental health problems are even denied civil and political rights in some cases, owing to unjustified bias and discrimination. For people with mental health problems, finding work in the labor market or returning to work and retaining a job after treatment is often a challenge. This is because even after recovery, bias and stigma continues to plague their lives and futures. Stigma surrounds those with mental illness and the recovery process is often misunderstood by the fellow people and colleagues. The efforts to diminish this pandemonium cannot be ignored, no doubt. There are a lot of infrastructures designed by expert psychiatrists and officials to reduce the increasing incidence of social exclusion inn the world. One place to start the remedial work form is the workplaces. This option is and should be increasingly considered by those concerned about the issue of social exclusion, because the workplaces are capable of promoting awareness about good mental health practices and provide tools for recognition and early identification of mental health problems. This type of atmosphere can also establish links with local mental health services for referral treatment and rehabilitation. According to latest reports by WHO, although effective mental health services are multidimensional, the workplace is an appropriate environment in which to educate individuals about, and raise their awareness of mental health problems. Awareness is of course extremely important in order to combat these problems on an early stage and so reducing increased stigmatized situations. Nobody can be more affected by unemployment issues than those affected by mental illnesses, because the kind of economic and financial pressure they have to experience, has no parallel. So the combined efforts of all the people and oraganizations can ultimately result in reducing the social and economic costs to society of mental health problems. Latest research suggests that employment provides five types of psychological experiences that are thought to promote mental well-being, time structure. Basically it is the absence of time structure that mostly proves to be the major psychological burden. Social contact is another thing identified by the psychological researchers, in addition to the necessity and importance of collective effort and purpose, social identity (employment is an important element in defining oneself) and regular lifestyle. All of these factors, when combined, can work miracles to diminish and wipe out social exclusion from the society. This is directly linked with poverty as well, because unemployment is a major factor leading to poverty and if the employers broaden their minds to employ such persons in some possible way, social exclusion can be decreased which automatically decreases poverty as well. This suggests that the discussion of unemployment in context of people facing mental health problems is of huge importance. "Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty when resources are so seriously below those commanded by the average individual or family that they are, in effect, excluded from the ordinary living patterns, customs and activities" (Townsend p.31). Tackling poverty is a moral duty and should be considered a general self-interest by everybody who is influential or is capable in any other way. According to Disability Equality Scheme (p. 6), the primacy of poverty reduction and improved mental health as an objective of UK development assistance is established in law under the International Development Act (2002). This is a deplorable fact that men, women and children who are discriminated against due to mental health problems often end up excluded from society and the economy and are more likely to be poor. It also goes without saying that the groups affected and the degree of discrimination or stigma varies from one culture or society to another. Eliminating discrimination, promoting equality of opportunity and encouraging positive attitudes towards such people who eventually are labeled as minority groups, all these goals should be positioned at the heart of every country's poverty reduction strategies and should be absolutely reflective of the policies designed for tackling social exclusion and therefore poverty. Unless the poorest can keep up with growth in average incomes, they will progressively become more excluded from the opportunities that the rest of society enjoys. No doubt, the potential for social exclusion increases 10-fold for the poorest people, also affected by mental health problems. Mostly these mental problems have been figured out by the psychologists worldwide to be delusions and disruptive thinking. Some disabled people feel that the definition of mental disability focuses too much on a "medical model" of disability and argue for a "social model" of understanding disability. The Code of Practice for the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 (cited in McDaid 2006, p. 4) addresses this issue by explaining that "the poverty and social exclusion experienced by many disabled people is not the inevitable result of their impairments or medical conditions, rather it stems from attitudinal and environmental barriers". If we talk about the theme of social model, desired by the mentally disabled people in some way, we come across the illuminating view that this model clearly suggests more often than not, it is the social barriers or obstacles which are put in place by the community and authority, sometimes unconsciously, which turn out to be the real cause of disability, not the impairments themselves. There is a variety of such barriers suggested by the psychological researchers especially and the most frequently occurring can be: prejudice and stereotypes that such people have to face and which are potentially capable of isolating these people from the world and exacerbating the worse conditions further. The way things are organized and run, for example, training events, conferences or job application forms, are also twisted for the people with mental problems or psychotic symptoms in such a way that they are rendered totally secluded and banished from the normal activities of the society. Poor or minimal access to information, buildings and transport is another important distressing scenario faced by mentally ill people. A more critical approach to conceptualizing social exclusion, particularly in terms of its relevance to understanding the social experiences of people with mental health problems suggests valid arguments that for mental illness, "social exclusion" has more explanatory power than "poverty" or related concepts, because it focuses attention on the non-material disadvantages that result from the discriminatory responses of others and institutions like emotional imbalances. If this viewpoint is observed, then this perspective suggests that the social inclusion of people with mental health problems can be achieved only when society changes. Without the involvement of society itself, no matter how many strategies and rights are announced by the governments all over the globe, only minimal changes can be produced. The mood, thinking and approach of the society towards the mentally disabled people need to be changed and this should be targeted as the real challenge in order to produce revolution in the society. According to Earwicker (2008), tackling Health Inequalities should explore the balance between upstream action on the broader social determinants of health and downstream action driven by interventions through the health care system and health improvement. The work of Earwicker illuminates the sad fact that between the 1970s and the mid-1990s, health inequalities mounted and child poverty increased in England. Similar cases of repeated discrimination, insufficient health facilities and poor or rather ruthless social response were frequently reported but in vain. Then after 1997, the mute and somewhat insensitive official response shifted to some pretty effective strategies and tackling methodologies planned by the Government. This brought a new focus to economic and social policy with health inequalities targeted as the key theme. This gradually resulted in the establishment of the Independent Inquiry into the department of Inequalities in Health. The revolutionary did not just stop here but progressed to myriad other rights given by the government to people with mental health problems. The general goal of all the movements was and still is to eradicate the overwhelming chances of social exclusion and poverty for such people, who are otherwise vulnerable and prone to catastrophic dilemmas, because according to most of the definitions of social exclusion, social relationships and networks are a central component, a key requirement for a fully participative and inclusive life. Anyhow, awareness at official level to bring changes in how mentally disabled people were treated was followed by the establishment of a national target and the adoption of the national strategy. This strategy identified families, mothers and children especially as a key theme to be implemented through a range of programmes, including poverty, taxes and benefits, education and child care, infant, maternal and health care welfare services. This can be thought as a very effective strategy by some to help mentally disabled people achieve basic human rights, to which they are rendered less entitled after the society acknowledges them as mentally disabled persons. The kind of unjustified bias and deplorable economic conditions leading to horrendously poor lifestyle is obviously highly condemnable and many new efforts are still in progress to eradicate the bad impact mental illnesses have on affected people in the form of social exclusion and poor socioeconomic conditions. References BBC News, 1999, 'Defending the rights of the mentally ill', Discrimination, viewed 06 September 2010, Disability Equality Scheme, 2006-2009, 'Disability and its equality', DFID and its business: 6. Earwicker, R 2008, United Kingdom: tackling health inequalities for families, mothers and children in England, viewed 06 September 2010, Hinders, D 2010, 'What are the Long Term Effects of Poverty' A Problem with Lasting Effects, viewed 06 September 2010, McDaid, S 2006, 'Code of Practice', Mental Capacity Act 2005: 4. Morgan, C 2007, 'Social exclusion and mental health', Conceptual and methodological review, viewed 06 September 2010, Palmer, G 2005, 'Poverty versus Social Exclusion', Relative poverty, Absolute poverty and Social exclusion, viewed 06 September 2010, Silver, H 2007, 'Social Exclusion: Comparative Analysis of Europe and Middle East Youth', Middle East Youth Initiative Working Paper: p. 15. Townsend, P 1979, Poverty in the United Kingdom: a survey of household resources and standards of living, University of California Press: p. 31. World Health Organization, 2002, Mental Health and Work: Impact, Issues and Practices, viewed 06 September 2010, Read More