Healing Home by Vanessa Oliver

Author:Vanessa Oliver [Oliver, Vanessa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOC045000, SOC028000, SOC025000
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Published: 2013-03-16T04:00:00+00:00

Mental Health

Any number of social, psychological, and contextual factors can impact a person’s mental health; however, evidence has repeatedly demonstrated that poverty and its associated pressures are highly likely to have a negative effect on mental health and well-being (World Health Organization, 2007). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Mental health is not just the absence of mental disorder. It is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community” (ibid). Like physical health, the social determinants of mental health are critical to health outcomes: stress, social exclusion, discrimination, violence, and their interrelationships are all predictors of poor mental health. This definition of mental health will be relied upon throughout these chapters as it signals the fact that mental health supersedes individual factors and is not simply the existence of a disorder in the brain. As Astbury (1999) highlights, however, the WHO definition fails to identify gender, which is crucial in analysing individuals’ capacities to attain good mental health and equitable treatment.

As in the case of physical health and well-being, the intersections of gender, race, class, immigration status, sexuality, and any other range of social locations are primary factors in the determination of mental health status; however, studies have also shown that these intersectional dynamics also impact upon the way services and treatments are accessed and administered (Bondi & Burman, 2001). Feminists have long criticized the psy-establishment for its inequitable treatment of women, which is especially prevalent in situations where women lack autonomy, social capital, income, power, and control (Ostlin et al., 2001). The systemic discrimination in psychology and psychotherapy is inherent to the andro- and ethno-centric, heterosexist, and elitist foundations of professions that function, ultimately, to naturalize women’s social subordination (Bondi & Burman, 2001).

Traditionally, the health professions have tended to focus mental health therapies on illness rather than health, on the individual rather than the social, and on top-down rather than bottom-up solutions (Weare, 2000). Foucault’s theorizing around medicalization, and its extensions by feminists, has demonstrated the ways in which the psy-professions have been integral in controlling, establishing, and maintaining inequalities in society. “Expert” opinions and diagnoses are often based on normative conceptions of gender, sexuality, class, and race that tend to control and constrict women’s treatment options. The following discussions of mental health, then, attempt to expose these vulnerabilities and critique the psy-professions that continue to deny the agency and experience of the young women under their care.

Those with mental health problems are often not well-served by the health care system and this is particularly the case for the young and homeless. Precarious housing and social exclusion can have a double-edged impact on young women who may or may not seek medical treatment. Those who have weak or no ties to social services often go untreated, exacerbating conditions that remain with them into adulthood. On

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