Mental Health Conditions Negatively Affect Social And Economic Opportunity

Brittaney Jewel Bethea | Medical Xpress | October 18, 2013

A recent study revealed that adults in the City of St. Louis spend an average of 4.5 days a month in poor mental health, with St. Louis County not lagging far behind, at an average of 3 days a month.

It's an issue tackled head-on in the latest policy brief of a landmark study. The brief, "How Can We Improve Mental Health in St. Louis? Invest in Our Community and Raise Awareness," finds that mental health limits people's social and economic opportunities and that there are stark racial differences in mental health outcomes and treatment in the St. Louis region.

The brief, written by Darrell L. Hudson, PhD, assistant professor in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, is the third of five from a multidisciplinary study called "For the Sake of All: A Report on the Health and Well-Being of African Americans in St. Louis."

"Mental health affects people's social and economic opportunities, and in turn, social and economic opportunity affects mental health," Hudson said. "For example, people dealing with mental health challenges are less likely to complete school, and low educational achievement is strongly associated with lower earnings.