Poverty and Mental Health

Social determinants of health are as stated by the World Health Organization (n.d.) “conditions in which people are born, grow, live work and age” (para. 1) having, as a result, a substantial impact on a person’s health. An example is poverty which is when one lacks money to meet basic needs. This response will explore how poverty is interconnected with mental health, the impact of poverty and mental health on the health of an individual or population, and lastly use the five levels of prevention to provide examples of interventions addressing poverty and mental health.

Poverty as a social determinant of health is an issue that can be shaped by money, power, or resources (World Health Organization, n.d.). It can have many physical impacts on a person such as poor nutrition or lack of shelter resulting in illnesses. However, just as it impacts physically, it can also influence mental health when instead of recognizing poverty as a social health determinant, the individual is blamed (Sherrer, 2023). This causes things like stigma, feelings of worthlessness, avoidance, distancing, and isolation. In addition, poverty in childhood has been linked to a higher probability of addiction and mental health disorders in adulthood (Fleury, 2008). Mental health is a big issue in Canada and even larger in low-income groups who are three to four times more probable to experience poor mental health than those in higher-income groups (Shimmin, n.a.). Poverty has a profound impact on the health of an individual and population, hence it is important steps are taken to prevent it.

There are five stages of prevention, the primordial, primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary prevention stage. Primordial prevention often comes in the form of policies or laws and focuses on identifying and preventing risk factors (Kisling and Das, 2023). Since poverty is shaped by money, power, and resources, an increase in any of these things will result in a decline in poverty. This can be done by providing opportunities within a population for free education that will assist in providing a form of income or helpful resources as well as by creating job opportunities with embedded training granting individuals the money, power, and resources needed to be able to shift from a position of poverty towards one with enough funds to support basic needs. The primary prevention stage involves action taken before the beginning of a health problem to reduce its prevalence to the minimum (Kisling and Das, 2023). Examples of interventions to address poverty in this stage are providing more affordable housing, which could mean building more residences, and making food prices more affordable to the public. The secondary stage means to detect early signs of a health problem to stop its progression, in this case, finding ways to identify early signs of poverty in a population and protect others from experiencing it (Kisling and Das, 2023). This can be accomplished by educating individuals on poverty, having programs connecting families with the resources they lack to ensure basic needs are always met and creating a survey to assist in better identifying early signs of poverty. The Tertiary prevention level is used when a health problem is beyond the initial stages (Kisling and Das, 2023). Interventions such as building tiny homes for people experiencing homelessness or provision of access to free mental health services to help with mental health problems developed after poverty experiences, are what can be used to address poverty at this stage. Lastly, quaternary prevention is defined by the National Institutes of Health (2018) as “Action taken to protect individuals (persons/patients) from medical interventions that are likely to cause more harm than good” (Kisling and Das, 2023, para. 6). This is done reducing overmedicalization, overdiagnosis and overtreatment. All of this requires healthcare workers to be aware of how poverty and mental health are interconnected and their effect on the individuals in the population before entering the field of work, which can be achieved by including this education within the job training. In conclusion, poverty is an issue that can lead to mental health problems affecting not only individuals but also populations, but there are interventions that can be applied to address the issues related to poverty and mental health.

Reference

Fleury, D. (2008, May). Low-income children. Statistics Canada-Catalogue, 75(001-X). https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-001-x/2008105/pdf/10578-eng.pdf

Kisling, L. A., & Das, J. M. (2023, August 1). Prevention Strategies. National Library of Medicine; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537222/

Sherrer M. (2023). POVERTY, HOMELESSNESS AND FOOD SECURITY. Fleming College. https://fleming.desire2learn.com/d2l/le/content/201037/viewContent/2454535/View

Shimmin, C. (n.d.). Backgrounder: The impact of poverty on health. Evidence Network. https://evidencenetwork.ca/backgrounder-the-impact-of-poverty-on-health/#:~:textworld=Poverty%20in%20childhood%20is%20associated,physical%20disabilities%20and%20premature%20death

Stamler, L.L., Yiu, L., Dosani, A., Etowa,J. & van Daalen-Smith, C. (2020). Community Health Nursing: A Canadian Perspective (5th Edition). Pearson Education. https://plus.pearson.com/products/01b2f9e1-d199-45e6-9d02-c11bbb5b1916/pages/a6887614145312ec472bef96a8801121719215cfa-P7001016442000000000000000005EEC?userPreferredType=read

World Health Organization. (n.d.). Social Determinants of Health. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health#tab=tab_1