Mental Health Inequality

Poor mental health can affect anyone at any time in their lives, however unfortunately there are some people for who the likelihood of experiencing a mental health problem is higher than average. This results in health inequality not just across the UK, but across the world too.

The prevalence of inequalities in mental health has strong ethical implications. Individuals with mental health diagnoses may face barriers accessing employment and education and accessing care. This can have a negative effect on their overall quality of life.

Factors that may influence the likelihood of experiencing poor mental health include race, sexuality, poverty, unemployment, and having other diagnoses including learning disabilities and autism.

Mental Health Inequality Facts and Statistics

Let’s take a look at some of the key statistics highlighted by the Centre for Mental Health:

• Children and young people with a learning disability are three times more likely than average to have a mental health diagnosis. (Lavis et al., 2019)
• 70% of children (Simonoff et al., 2008) and 79% of adults (Lever and Geurts, 2016) with autism have at least one mental health condition.
• Individuals who identify as LGBT+ are more likely to experience a mental health problem than those who identify as heterosexual. They are also more likely to have lower wellbeing. (Semlyen et al., 2016)
• Compared to white people, “black women are more likely to experience a common mental illness such as anxiety disorder or depression, and black men are more likely to experience psychosis.” 

The Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Mental Health Inequality

The Covid-19 pandemic has not only impacted people physically, but mentally too. The last 2 years have taken a toll on a lot of people’s mental health.

Research conducted by Mind in 2021 with 12,000 participants found that around a third of adults and young people said their mental health has got much worse since March 2020. 9 in 10 young people also reported that loneliness during the pandemic has made their mental health worse.

Unsurprisingly, research has also found certain populations have been harder hit by the effects of the pandemic, including those with existing long-term mental health conditions, people from minority ethnic communities, and individuals identifying as LGBT+.

A study led by the Mental Health Foundation conducted surveys across 2020 and 2021. Findings from the surveys conducted in June 2020 identified:

• Young adults aged 18-24 were more likely to report stress as a result of the pandemic compared to the general population.
• People who were experiencing poor mental health pre-pandemic were more likely to experience anxiety and panic, hopelessness, stress, and the inability to cope throughout the lockdowns.
• Unemployed people or those in insecure employment reported higher levels of hopelessness, and 24% reported suicidal thoughts/feelings (more than double the population as a whole).
• 26% of people with long term physical health conditions reported struggling to cope, compared to 14% of the overall population.
• Women were more likely than men to report mental health problems. Reasons for this could include the fact that women make up the majority of the frontline health and care profession, are more likely to do unpaid work, and are overrepresented in low paid and insecure work. (The Women’s Mental Health Taskforce Report, 2018)

In this video from Mind, three young people, Anisah, Blake and Maccartney, describe their experiences with their mental health during Covid-19 and share some of their top tips.

Read more on the effects of the pandemic and mental health here.

The Fight Towards Mental Health Equality

Inequalities in the prevalence of mental health conditions in certain populations have unfortunately been widely reported, however there is hope that steps are being taken to reduce these inequalities.

In December 2018, the Government published a report titled “Health matters: reducing health inequalities in mental illness.” The report highlights the preventative steps that local areas can take to work towards reducing mental health inequality.

The report highlights an important strategy that local areas can implement to identify the areas and community groups they need to focus on: the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) for mental health and wellbeing. The JSNA allows local authorities to build a picture of local needs and gain an understanding of variations and risk factors in different populations.

This can help local areas create interventions that help those most in need to address inequalities.

Released in September 2020, the NHS “Advancing mental health equalities strategy” calls for all mental health services to take concrete steps in the fight against stigma and inequalities in mental health. The strategy outlines core actions that need to be taken to level the access and standard of care for all communities.

As part of the strategy, the Patient and Carers Race Equalities Framework (PCREF) will be rolled out across all mental health Trusts by 2022. The PCREF will support NHS Trusts to improve the experiences of ethnic minority communities in mental health services.

Thanks to extensive research on the topic, progress is being made to reduce the inequalities in mental health. We hope for a future where the likelihood of experiencing a mental health problem is not increased due to ethnicity, sexuality, age or mental or physical diagnosis.

If you are currently struggling with your mental health and need someone to talk to, you can text SHOUT to 85258. SHOUT is a free and confidential text message service that provides advice and support.

References:

Anne G Lever, Hilde M Geurts (2016). Psychiatric Co-occurring Symptoms and Disorders in Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Emily Simonoff, Andrew Pickles, Tony Charman, Susie Chandler, Tom Loucas, Gillian Baird (2008). Psychiatric disorders in children with autism spectrum disorders: prevalence, comorbidity, and associated factors in a population-derived sample.

Joanna Semlyen, Michael King, Justin Varney & Gareth Hagger-Johnson (2016). Sexual orientation and symptoms of common mental disorder or low wellbeing: combined meta-analysis of 12 UK population health surveys. 

Mental Health Foundation, University of Cambridge, Swansea University, the University of Strathclyde and Queen’s University Belfast (2020-2021). Coronavirus: Mental Health in the Pandemic. 

NHS (2020). Advancing mental health equalities strategy. 

Paula Lavis, Christine Burke and Professor Richard Hastings on behalf of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition (2019). Overshadowed: The mental health needs of children and young people with learning disabilities. 

UK Government Department of Health and Social Care (2018). The Women’s Mental Health Taskforce Report. 

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.