A report recently released by the United Nations said that poverty makes people up to three times more likely to suffer from mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety compared to the wealthy.
Entitled “The burnout economy: poverty and mental health,” the report states that “poverty causes mental health conditions, which in turn constitutes an obstacle to escape from poverty.”
“Those on lower incomes are up to three times more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and other common mental illnesses than those with the highest incomes,” the report said.
It said more than 970 million people around the world, or 11 percent of the population, suffer from some kind of mental illness. 280 have depression and 301 million suffer from anxiety, it added. Every year, suicide claims the lives of around 700,000 people and has become the fourth leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29.
Competitive, consumption-oriented modern life is a threat to mental health, said the study compiled by the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier de Schutter.
In the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, between a third and half of all requests for disability payments stem from mental health issues, and among young adults the proportion is up to 70 percent, the study said.
Globally, mental health conditions cause losses of $1 trillion annually. “The returns on investment in treating depression and anxiety would therefore be considerable,” said the report.
The prevailing misconception that treatments and intervention for mental health is a privilege for the rich in this country is one that government must seek to debunk, through efforts to make such services universally available to all citizens. This is most needed by the underprivileged who have been forced to deal with the burden of poverty, along with the mental health issues that come with living in such a deplorable state, adding to the never ending cycle of poverty and despair. If they are to extricate themselves from such a life, they will need all the support and help that can be made accessible.*
