Deindustrialization Of Mental Health

The business cycle and the economy ebb and flow in sporadic, unpredictable trends; however, the decrease in societal health that accompanies an economic downturn is predictable. If health deteriorates, so does mental health. While economic struggles are unavoidable, mental health struggles are not. This leads to the question: what can be done to solve the negative impact that poor economic conditions have on mental health? Both debt relief and active labor market programs (ALMP) as well as health care reforms can aid in recovery from poor economic conditions, such as temporary unemployment or more long-term bouts of poverty (Winters, McAteer, & Scott-Samuel, 2012; McDaid et al, 2013). Using these solutions can help alleviate the burden financial

The Great Recession was the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression in the 1930s and it also had significant global impacts. Suicides, along with common mental disorders, in Greece, Ireland, and England skyrocketed after the onset of the recession (Wahlbeck & McDaid, 2012). The culture of associating wealth with quality of life permeates the developed world, establishing a self-fulfilling prophecy of deteriorating mental health during economic difficulties. The more severe those difficulties, the worse the mental state of society becomes because people feel they lost their right to live along with their ability to maintain their

Those who live in a perpetual state of poverty or unemployment also experience poor mental health. The Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health explains that ongoing occurrences of economic difficulties were associated with worse mental health compared to those in better financial situations (Lallukka et al., 2013). The National Center for Health Statistics provides backing for this data, expressing that depression was the most common mental illness in those below the poverty level (2011). As seen in the data below, each age group experience depression five times more often when in poverty (2011, p. 38). Poverty-stricken adults experience the common trend of poor mental health when compared to their financially stable counterparts. In a study published in the British Medical Journal, the onset of depression and other mental disorders were more prevalent in those in poverty or under financial strain, even after correcting for standards of living (Weich & Lewis, 1998). This indicates that mental health is altered by personal and economy-wide phenomenon across the