After reviewing the Determinants of Health through a broad lens, I decided to go down a rabbit hole and pursue my own learning activity to look at the relationship between the social determinants of health and mental health. My first find was from CMHA Ontario (n.d.), where they note three determinants which significantly impact mental health;
· freedom from discrimination and violence,
· social inclusion, and
· access to economic resources.
Though, upon looking at a couple of academic papers and a publication from the World Health Organization I found that there are many social determinants of health which impact mental health and mental health disorders. Interestingly, this is in some cases bi-directional because poor mental health can influence social determinants and vice versa. As referenced by Alegría et al., “mental illness can also impact social determinants, including homelessness, school dropout, marital instability and economic insecurity” (2018, p. 4).
A strategy that I find helps me to visualize and understand concepts that are interconnected and have many parts is to create a mind map. As I reviewed these resources specific to mental health I began listing them, and then to better conceptualize all their parts I transferred them into a mind map using the application Canva.
Check out below for my mind map! What social determinants related to mental health have I missed?
- Kylie
References
Alegría, M., NeMoyer, A., Falgas, I., Wang, Y., & Alvarez, K. (2018). Social Determinants of Mental Health: Where We Are and Where We Need to Go. Current Psychiatry Reports, 20(11), 95. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-018-0969-9
Canadian Mental Health Association Ontario. (n.d.). Social Determinants of Health. Retrieved October 15, 2022 from https://ontario.cmha.ca/provincial-policy/social-determinants/
World Health Organization and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. (2014). Social Determinants of Mental Health. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/112828/9789241506809_eng.pdf
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