Mental Health in an Unequal World

Volume 11 Issues 10 October, 2021

For a long, our society has only recognised and emphasised health in physical terms only, but later the social aspects were added to the meaning of proper health. The perspective regarding health kept on evolving; still, the human civilization has not been able to comprehend mental health, the most basic aspect that influence all other parts of social well-being.

According to WHO, “mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realises his/her abilities, can  cope with normal stresses of life, can work productively, and can make  a contribution to his /her community .”We see WHO stresses over individual abilities and coping capacity and, more importantly, how individual works for the progress of his/her community towards a dignified and peaceful position with easy affordability and accessibility to basic human needs in society.

Our society has only recognised mental health as having psychological disorders and illness only, which creates a stigma in the population. In actuality, mental health is more than just the absence of mental disorders or disabilities. It also considers the cognitive and emotional aspects and potential of everyone. Stress, depression and anxiety affect people irrespective of age, sex, race and community. There are various factors responsible for stress in daily routine activities. Different persons have different aspirations and goals, and all work to achieve, but with the utilisation of resources and working over their capabilities. And if the desires remain unfulfilled, they can cause the cravings and stress, which some can tackle and some are unable to cope up. But we also need to introspect that do the stratifications of society are allowing access to mental healthcare to the needy or not. Still, in reality, the shackles of illiteracy and poverty do not allow even the affordability of basic mental healthcare in our society.

The world has evolved and advanced in terms of economy and development of resources, but the wealth has been polarised so that there is a large gap between the wealthiest and poor. The lack of appropriate investment in healthcare has also resulted in this gap expanding. It depicts clearly that a mentally ill individual cannot afford or access basic healthcare and just live in agony facing stigma and discrimination. These reflect inequity in mental health in this unequal world where people in different regions have already faced different forms of crisis, economic depression, fighting for establishing human rights and shouting out loud against oppression for freedom and dignified lives. And the COVID pandemic has just elicited the preparation of the healthcare system of countries all over the globe, either highly developed or developing countries.

This pandemic era has given me excruciating memories. It devastated the lives, challenged the health system, tested the patience of humans. The lockdown has affected the destitute and outcast communities, caused a fall of the economy, created unemployment, resulted in migration on a large scale, resulting in lack of basic livelihood essentials and hence added the stress and anxiety level in the population. Moreover, those people were harshly affected who were already in depression. Amidst all these, social media has just added more frustration through its business propaganda and fake news and negativities all around the television.

If we talk about the inequity in mental health, we must address the basic problems faced by different age groups, genders, communities and races and then analyse and enact accordingly. Different age groups go through different circumstances. Childhood, a period of learning and enjoying the things around, also is affected by the harsh realities of the world. The children often become the easy target of molestation, racist comments, body shaming which they carry as lifelong memories and thus, these may result in phobias, panic attacks, rage, aggression. Teenagers are also prey to getting entrapped in a network of drugs and influenced easily by peer pressure. And the adults have their mental health disturbed due to family responsibilities, earning pressure, relationships, social responsibilities. This fancy world, with its advancement, has only added inflictions of pain and anxiety. Talking about gender, we must admit the problems faced by the women and LGBTQ+ communities who are fighting hard for the establishment of liberty and equal opportunities and representation in all aspects. But amidst all, they also get affected harshly by the misogynist people. We should talk about and support the intersectional rights against this patriarchal society.

And more importantly, the gap created in the population has been a result of ages-old social divisions on discriminating grounds, which are still existing. Through retrospective analysis, we can realise how these divisions have kept oppressed to denial of basic rights, neither healthcare nor basic education and awareness. Medical healthcare only reached well off people easily, and the marginalised population still lags behind.

We often come across suicide cases nowadays disturbing for the people as someone loses hope of life, is just disturbing for the closed ones and general public too. Society should be aware of such mentally ill people and provide a safe and reliving environment around such people, empathise and help people in need to prevent such things.

Now there are the implications that can help us how we can work together to move for equity in the mental healthcare system through some steps. Firstly, we need to have an equitable distribution of healthcare resources and specifically in remote and marginalised areas. There must be adequate investment by the government and philanthropic funding for healthcare. Investment in sectors such as education, employment and human rights protection, measures against discrimination and providing affirmative access to the oppressed can prove fruitful to decrease the gap towards affordability. Those should be given priority who are living beyond the poverty line, as they are already carrying ill health, malnourishment. And in the current scenario, people with mental illness need to be prioritised due to the consequences of inequitable access; and the post-pandemic economic burden can worsen their pre-existing risk of premature mortality. Reliance on remote delivery and healthcare workers is needed. Going through these steps, we can all together stand up against the social stigma and discrimination. And hence we can work to achieve the healthcare that will hear all sections of the society and will be easily accessible all around the globe.

*The featured painting of this article contributed by Osheen Bhatnagar from NIFT, Delhi, Know more about Osheen Bhatnagar