Lesson 4 Cases of Specific Groups
Unemployed and mental health
- The relationship between mental health and unemployment is bi-directional. Good mental health is a key influence on employability, finding a job and remaining in that job.
- Unemployment causes stress, which has long-term physiological health effects and negative consequences for people’s mental health, including depression, anxiety and lower self-esteem.
Low-income families and health
- Low-income families usually cannot afford adequate housing, food, or child care.
- Such living conditions, and the stress they cause, can lead to higher rates of tobacco and alcohol use and increase the risk of health problems developing or worsening over time.
- In addition, people with low-incomes use fewer preventive care services.
- As a result, there are fewer opportunities for practitioners to assess and educate these patients about their health risks.
- Even when low-income people do see health care providers, the social needs like poor housing that may affect their health and complicate treatment are rarely addressed.
Single parent families
- Women who experience single motherhood between the ages of 16 and 49 may face an increased risk of disability and poor health in later life in comparison with women who raise children with a partner.
- The more time women spend parenting alone, the more likely their health will worsen as they age, affecting their ability to do even the most menial tasks.
- Single mothers with a job have a higher risk of heart disease and stroke than their married peers.
- They are also more likely to smoke than married women – a known risk factor of disease.
- Losing the support of a partner may cause stress and result in unhealthy behaviours.
Source: miro.medium.com
“Being a lone mother may hamper women’s abilities to gain education, accrue careers and accumulate income, also leading to poorer health” (James McIntosh, 2015)
For more information you can read the study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Psychiatric disorders were found to occur with higher frequency in children of single parent families, especially those lacking a father during the child’s whole life.
Childhood enuresis was most frequent in the children who had experienced the divorce of their parents.
People with disabilities
Over 1 billion people live with some form of disability.
- Prejudice, stigma and discrimination by health care providers
- Limited knowledge and understanding of the rights and the health needs of people with disabilities
- Limited awareness of the sexual and reproductive health needs of women with disability and inadequate provision of high quality sexual and reproductive services
- Current policies are not meeting the needs of people with disabilities (e.g. longer and more flexible appointment times, cost reduction)
- People with disabilities are rarely involved in decision-making
- Difficulties in accessing healthcare services
- Infrastructure issues (e.g. stairs, narrow passages, reduced lighting, etc.)
- Large shipping cost to get to a health service and pay for medicines or to visit a health care provider.
Source: www.freepik.com
Source: www.annualreviews.org