Widening gulf between rich and poor is damaging mental health

Published on Monday 9 March 2009 21:13

THE gap between the rich and poor in the UK is damaging the nation's mental health which could lead to a "social recession", experts warned yesterday.

A report by the Mental Health Foundation found that inequalities between the most well off and most deprived in society caused both psychological and physical changes in people.

They warned that poor mental health was a significant cause of wider social and health problems, including low levels of education achievement and work productivity, higher levels of disease and violence and relationship breakdown.

The report – Mental Health, Resilience and Inequalities – called for a radical shift towards understanding mental health as a public health issue. It also argued that poor mental health could lead to social recession, where communities no longer feel connected to each other.

The report says that inequality leads to perpetual stress, which can lead to permanently high levels of stress hormones, as well as causing depression, higher blood pressure and other medical problems that are linked to stress and poor mental health.

The authors said these reactions could be explained by the highly social nature of human beings and their sensitivity to social position and status.

Dr Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said: "We know that the UK has become a much more unequal place in the last few decades and we also know that people's mental health seems to have worsened at the same time.

"Now we're beginning to understand how these two trends might be linked, and how living with inequality can have very real effects on the mind and body.

"Given the huge social costs of poor mental health, it's vital we begin to treat it as a public health priority," he added.