BBC discusses a new report that found that “people from Scotland’s most deprived areas are more than three times as likely to be treated for mental illness than those in more affluent communities.”
Deprivation and mental health link ‘strong and consistent’ (BBC, May 13, 2015)
Who’da thunk it?
Astonishing, right? In other news: jumping from a plane without a parachute can kill you and sun seems to be setting on the west.
Of course deprivation is going to cause all sorts of perceptual distortions and emotional disruption. That’s a normal reaction to chronic deprivation.
Then again, the uber-rich who are running the country and the world have to be rather insane, from the way the world has turned out. I’d call it grossly criminal neglect and mismanagement, and that’s why people live in extreme poverty and deprivation, as well as in violent conflict. It’s been a never-ending cycle throughout history.
Change has to be drastic and exceptionally creative for this tragic cycle to transcend into a livable humanity, which currently, for the vast majority of people, it is not.
The astounding fact is that they see an answer to that in:
“We have worked with NHS boards to improve the prescribing of anti-depressants and other medications, meaning that people are given appropriate treatment when they need it.”
“We know that many avoidable conditions such as alcoholism and obesity are a result of poor mental health.”
“Such conditions are more prevalent in areas of higher mental health inequality, so it would seem to be a priority to ensure that appropriate mental health support services are available where they are most needed.”
In other words: poverty can cause/exacerbate mental and psychological problems – let’s give people more pills. Yeah, that will work.
On the “correlation” argument – I know – all these poor people are poor because they’re mental and if we only hand out more anti-depressants they will all lift themselves by the bootstraps and we’ll have heaven on Earth. Or maybe not?
It’s funny how all these politicians and “doctors” gloss over the poverty aspect and jump into conclusions about how much mental health treatment is needed. Because why would anyone do what actually works which is to address the root causes.
