Poverty Linked To Mental Health Deterioration
Research from the General Medical Service has shown that areas of high mental illness are found in London, the north of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, all with high-deprivation areas.
North Shields GP Dr Dave Tomson told healthcarerepublic.co.uk that there were many factors which led to the decline in cognitive ability, including living in an urbanised area which suffers from high levels of unemployment and migration.
This, according to Dr Tomson, could explain why there was such a high level of mental health problem sufferers in London. His thoughts echoed those of Dr Ian Walton, a GPSI in psychiatry in the West Midlands and chairman of the primary care mental health charity, who said that mental health was linked inextricably to poverty.
Dr Walton said that London had such a high prevalence of mental health problems because it contained some of the most deprived areas in the country. “It does not seem to be healthy to have large differentials between the rich and the poor in the same city,” Dr Walton said.