Where available, we highlight evidence collected in the Global South, but recognize that different contexts will also face unique social determinants of mental health that require dedicated attention. We focus on those determinants which may have broad effects on several major mental disorders globally, and/or which may be highly prevalent in society, and thus have the potential to offer the biggest gains for public mental health prevention. Such public mental health strategies should sit alongside existing evidence‐based strategies in clinical psychiatry that have proved effective in treating individuals.
Communicating Resources and Reducing Stigma with Caregivers
A positive, engaging school climate encourages risk-taking and questions, which is how fluency is built. “Providers need to work with community members and peers with lived experience in order to better understand systemic and intergenerational racism and structural barriers and how these can lead to psychological distress. Access to health insurance thus needs to be combined with approaches that enhance the engagement of minoritized ethnic groups.
Make social justice central to all public mental health interventions
Several people in the https://www.naadac.org/cultural-humility-resources waiting room become nervous about the motor tics and decide to sit on the other side of the room. A person with Tourette syndrome who experiences vocal and motor tics arrives at a busy urgent care center. They can take many forms, from subtle insults and invalidation of people’s experiences to overt assaults on someone’s identity.
Understanding the causal mechanisms through which any prenatal exposure may affect offspring mental health remains a critical objective for psychiatric epidemiology. A systematic review also found evidence to support a protective effect of prenatal multivitamin supplementation on autism spectrum disorder74, but this was restricted to high‐quality studies. In LMIC settings, a systematic review concluded that education, food insecurity, socioeconomic position and financial stress had more consistent effects on risk for common mental disorders than income and employment42.
- Additionally, the process of transitioning, which may involve hormone therapy or surgery, can also bring about mental health challenges, particularly if an individual faces rejection or discrimination during this process.
- Research indicates that patients are more inclined to seek and persist in treatment when they feel understood by their healthcare provider.
- SEEMA also empowers Muslims with the knowledge and tools to understanding mental health via educational workshops and podcasts.
- Many of these individuals could have been helped by treatment for their mental health disorders, if it had been offered as an alternative to imprisonment when mental health symptoms first began to manifest.
- Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health challenges were the leading cause of disability and poor life outcomes among young people, with up to 1 in 5 children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years in the United States having a reported mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorder.1 Many mental health challenges first emerge early in life, and studies suggest that the average delay between the onset of mental health symptoms and treatment is 11 years.2,3
Mental health care access and use
For young people, educational settings are likely to be particularly relevant environments in which to implement interventions that promote life‐long mental health. Stable, secure relationships, particularly in the early years of life, appear fundamental to buffer against life stressors, meaning that family‐based interventions hold enormous potential for mental health prevention and breaking intergeneration cycles of disadvantage. Although this requires additional data collection in the context of evaluations that may have quite separate aims, including mental health alongside other outcomes is becoming increasingly feasible with innovations such as computerized adaptive testing442, passive sensing technology, and administrative record linkage443. In light of these considerations, we recommend that mental health be measured as a standard outcome in the evaluation of any policy, programme or intervention targeting social determinants. Finally, the need for social justice applies not only to the strategies and policies to address social determinants of health, but also to the research that supports them.
