Social Determinants of Mental Health

Question 1

What the definition of mental health?

Answer 1

“A state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community”`

Question 2

What is a mental illness?

Answer 2

Conditions which affect a person’s ability to think, feel and act

Question 3

What are the most common mental health conditions in Australian Adults?

Answer 3

• Anxiety disorders
• Affective disorders (i.e. depression)
• Substance use disorders (i.e. alcohol dependence)

Question 4

What are the most common mental health conditions in children aged 4-17?

Answer 4

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Anxiety disorders
• Depressive disorders
• Conduct disorders

Question 5

What is the relationship between physical and mental health?

Answer 5

• 12.0% of people with a mental disorder also reported a physical condition, with 5.0% reporting 2 or more physical conditions.
• People with psychotic illness also frequently experience poor physical health outcomes and co-morbidities

Question 6

What causes mental illness?

Answer 6

• No definitive answer
• Nature + nurture
• Some inheritance patterns
• Social determinants

Question 7

What are examples of social determinants?

Answer 7

• Prenatal environment
• Early childhood
• Substance abuse (may cause mental illness but also be used as self-treatment)
• Poverty; changes in financial circumstances (e.g. losing life savings in a recession)
• Unemployment
• Homelessness
• Discrimination and stigma
• Environment (built environment; social environment)
• Political environment (war, violence, instability)

Question 8

What is epigenetics?

Answer 8

Theorises that environmental factors can result in epigenetic changes to genes, switching them on or off

Question 9

Describe our inherited trauma influences mental health

Answer 9

• Some of the trauma may be due to attachment difficulties but increasing evidence on epigenetic change
• Children born after the war had no personal experience
• Likely to affect children of current war zones, children of refugees

Question 10

Why do some children who have been exposed to difficult circumstances develop mental illness yet others are resilient?

Answer 10

• Risk factors and protective factors
• Element of probability and cannot claim to always accurately predict an outcome
• Likelihood that a child will have a resilient outcome despite exposure to high-risk is affected by the balance between risk and protective factors
• Protective factors may help mitigate the harm has been done
• Living in an environment with many protective factors may still have poor outcome if these are outweighed by risk factors