- Hi everyone, and welcome back
to the Living Well with Schizophrenia channel.
In today's video,
I'm going to be talking about certain factors
that you may not know are influencing your mental health.
(lively music)
My name is Lauren and I make videos
about what it's like living with schizoaffective disorder
or schizophrenia.
Make sure to subscribe to see more content like this one.
And also if you were wanting to support
the creation of future videos like this one,
please make sure to check out our Patreon page.
The link is in the description below.
We're working really hard
to keep building valuable resources for you all,
and any support is so appreciated, thank you.
Now, there are many factors
that can influence a person's mental health.
Some commonly thought of factors
include biology or genetics.
That includes, different treatment modalities
such as medication or therapy.
And it can also include things like self-care practices
or just lifestyle choices.
However, there are many factors beyond these,
including life experiences, workplace or other environments,
as well as the social and economic conditions
that we find ourselves in.
These are called the social determinants of mental health.
And these are talked about a lot
in the public health sphere,
and they're a really, really great place to start
in terms of creating policies and systems
to better a community's mental health.
Research has shown that the social determinants
can be even more important than healthcare
or lifestyle choices
in influencing health and mental health.
Now, due to advancements in science and technology,
there have been tremendous advancements
in terms of medicine and treatments for all illnesses,
including mental illnesses.
However, this has led to kind of an overmedicalization
of the treatment of mental illnesses,
where we are primarily treating directly the symptoms
through things like medication.
And there needs to be more of a shift
toward a more holistic treatment of mental illness
that includes the social determinants of health
and these various social and economic factors,
which also are at play
in terms of determining our mental health status.
So for example,
if someone presents to their psychiatrist with schizophrenia
and they are given a prescription
for some kind of antipsychotic medication,
however, they're also dealing with issues
such as lack of adequate housing or relationship issues
or conflict issues with a partner
or they are unable to find meaningful employment,
or they are dealing with a substance use problem.
The chances of that medication
being able to adequately address
all of their mental health problems is just not realistic.
And there needs to be an addressing
of all of these other social and economic factors
that are at play as well
if we want to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia
or any mental health problem.
So I've talked a lot about how important
the social determinants of mental health are,
but what exactly are they?
So I'm gonna run you through a list
of some key social determinants
of mental health that are known.
So the first determinant that I wanna draw your attention to
is early life development or early child development.
And basically this is just referring to your early years
and how those can affect your development through life,
as well as if you are experiencing something like poverty
and deprivation in your early years,
that can possibly lead to blunted coping skills later on.
And that's just kind of an example of how the early years
can possibly affect your mental health later on.
The next determinant is education.
And this is kind of an obvious one
because you know, the more education you have,
the better able you are to,
I think, take care of yourself in a way.
If you are achieving less education or whatnot,
it can possibly lead to things like learned helplessness,
which is a mental health problem.
And so there are different ways apart from this
where education or lack of education
can lead to mental health problems
or mental health benefits.
Another determinant is employment and working conditions.
So if you are employed,
you're more likely to have better mental health
than if you are wanting to be employed, but not.
But likewise, if you are finding yourself in employment,
but you are having high demands
and low control over your environment,
that can very easily lead to workplace stress,
which is obviously a mental health problem.
Likewise, if you have a well balanced job
and you're finding it meaningful and what not,
that can lead to workplace fulfillment.
So there's kind of different ways
where the dynamics at play in your workplace
or in your employment can affect your mental health.
The next one is food security.
So this is kind of another obvious one
where if you don't have access to healthy foods
to keep you sustained,
you're going to have some mental health side effects
to that.
Where if you don't have good food security,
if you have food insecurity and hunger,
this can possibly lead to feelings of maybe guilt or shame
for not being able to take care of yourself or your family.
There are direct implications for our mental health
with food scarcity and food insecurity.
The next one I wanna talk about is disability.
And so this is kind of just,
if you have a physical disability
that is affecting your quality of life,
this can lead to some negative effects
on your mental health.
Also though, you can be living a really fulfilled life
with a disability,
which also affects your mental health in a better way.
So again, this is just kind of another one
that affects your mental health one way or the other.
The next is gender and gender identity.
So if there is a lack of gender equity for women,
this can possibly lead to feelings of frustration
at not being seen as equivalent to men or whatever,
or it can lead even dependency,
which is another mental health problem.
Or likewise lack of acceptance of gender identity
can be really detrimental to mental health
and it can lead to feelings of shame and low self worth.
Another big determinant is housing.
So if someone is housing insecure or homeless,
this can lead to a lot of stress and anxiety,
which can have big effects on your overall mental health.
The next that kinda goes hand in hand with this one
is income and income distribution.
So obviously, this plays a role
in determining your mental health status.
If you have low income and are experiencing poverty,
this can possibly lead to feeling
like you have a lack of control over life
and again, stress and anxiety.
Likewise, if you have really solid and stable income,
then this can lead to giving a lot more space
to have positive mental health experiences.
And to give you more freedom to do things
to ameliorate your mental health.
So this is another one that is a big determinant
of mental health.
Another big determinant is race.
Now this can take the form of discrimination within society
leading to more negative mental health.
But it can also take the form of discrimination
within the mental health care system
and within the care that they receive
leading to poor mental health outcomes.
Another one that kind of goes along with this
is aboriginal status.
This is again discrimination within society
and marginalization or exclusion within society.
And this can possibly lead to
a lot of different mental health problems.
Now, aboriginal status, as a determinant
goes beyond just marginalization
and discrimination within society
to include something called intergenerational trauma.
Now, this is a really important concept to understand
when discussing indigenous peoples
because the indigenous peoples
have gone through a tremendous amount of cultural trauma
in terms of residential schools
that really stopped not too long ago.
And this trauma being passed down
from generation to generation through anger and resentment
for what happened with the residential schools
to blunted coping skills
because of what happened with the residential schools.
And it just keeps getting passed down
from generation to generation,
which is a big part of a lot of the societal issues
that we're finding right now
that are primarily afflicting indigenous peoples.
Another determinant is sexual orientation.
So there have been tremendous strides
in terms of the LGBTQ+ movement
to increase acceptance within society and whatnot.
But there are still a lot of people
who struggle with self acceptance
in terms of their sexual orientation.
And so this can have tremendous effects
on a person's mental health as well.
Another determinant is social exclusion.
So when a person is not really able to participate fully
in their social network or social community,
it can lead to feelings of loneliness or alienation,
which is pretty big
in terms of determining someone's mental health status.
Likewise, another determinant is the social safety net.
And so if somebody has a small social safety net
or no social safety net
and a lack of responsive services available,
this can possibly lead to further isolation within society.
Another determinant is crime rates
in a person's neighborhood or community
and exposure to violent behavior.
So this is kind of obvious, if you are in an environment
where there is a lot of violence and turmoil and crime
and whatnot, you're going to be negatively affected
in terms of your mental health.
The next determinant is availability of transportation.
If someone has a car that they are able to pay for
no problem and whatnot,
and they're able to get around very easily,
they're going to have a better time
in terms of having positive mental health in this regard.
However, if someone cannot afford a car
and needs to rely on public transit,
but public transit is really expensive
or public transit is really patchy
in terms of service offered,
then this is going to be really hard on a person
in terms of getting around
to the places that they need to be,
and it's going to make their life infinitely harder
and take more time to do simple tasks and whatnot,
which is going to negatively affect their mental health.
Now, I said that if you have an easy access to a vehicle
that you're gonna have positive mental health,
but this can also be flipped around
where if you are living in a metropolitan area
that has high high traffic congestion
and gives you a really long commute
or whatever makes it hard to get around easily,
this can also negatively impact your mental health.
The next social determinant is neighborhood conditions
and the physical environment in which you find yourself in.
So if you are surrounded in your neighborhood
by rolling green hills and park spaces and paths to walk on,
that's likely going to have a positive impact
on your mental health.
However, if you find yourself
in a little bit more of a decrepit neighborhood
that is not being well taken care of,
the infrastructure around you is crumbling,
that's going to lead to more negative mental health overall.
And the last determinant that I wanna draw your attention to
is recreational and leisure opportunities.
I mean, it's kind of obvious
that if you have access to a lot of recreational
and leisure opportunities, such as physical activity classes
or art classes, or different things like this,
where you're getting involved with community members
and with different things
that bring you joy or release tension or stress or whatnot,
it's going to be good for your mental health.
And likewise,
if you don't have access to these sorts of opportunities,
leisure opportunities,
it's gonna be harder to have positive mental health.
So these are many of the social determinants
or factors that may be influencing your mental health
either for the better or for the worse.
Unfortunately, these factors can be very, very difficult
or next to impossible for an individual to change
on their own.
However, it is helpful to be aware of these factors
and social determinants
when thinking about our mental health,
and it can be helpful to include these social determinants
in a plan to improve your mental health
and overall wellness.
It is also helpful to be aware of these social determinants
and factors when thinking about policy changes
and social systems within our communities.
It is very helpful to think about these
when knowing what services to advocate for,
or barriers to advocate against within your own community.
So I really love
talking about the social determinants of health.
This is kind of what I studied
when I was going through university.
I actually wrote a paper
on improving the mental health care system
that talks about the social determinants extensively.
It's called establishing optimal mental health care
for common mental disorders.
If you wanna take a look, it's available to the public.
But I'm really excited about this topic
and I hope that it was helpful
or educational for you guys as well.
So, like I said earlier in the video,
there has been a tremendous push
towards the medicalization of mental health
and treating it directly with medication
which I am strongly for.
I do believe that medication is very important
in the treatment of mental health.
However, what I hope to have accomplished in this video
is to show the huge breadth of other factors
that can be at play
in terms of determining someone's mental health
and determining if someone has positive
or more negative mental health.
And so if there are factors
that you maybe didn't think of before
that are affecting your own mental health,
that came to light during this video or whatnot,
I would love to hear about that in the comments below.
So thank you so much for watching.
If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up
and also make sure to subscribe
to see all future content that we produce.
If you wanna help support
the creation of future videos like this one, please again,
make sure to check out the link to our Patreon page,
it's in the description below.
Thank you so much again for watching
and as always, wishing you and your loved ones good health.
See you in the next video, bye.