scholarly journals Mental Health and Recreation Opportunities

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (24) ◽  
pp. 9338
Author(s):  
Kyung Hee Lee
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
National Level ◽  
Poverty Rate ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Recreation Opportunities ◽  
Community Environments

The environment has direct and indirect effects on mental health. Previous studies acknowledge that the poor design of communities and social environments leads to increased psychological distress, but methodological issues make it difficult to draw clear conclusions. Recent public health, leisure and recreation studies have tried to determine the relationship between recreation opportunities and mental health. However, previous studies have heavily focused on individual contexts rather than national or regional levels; this is a major limitation. It is difficult to reflect the characteristics of community environments effectively with such limited studies, because social environments and infrastructure should be analyzed using a spatial perspective that goes beyond an individual’s behavioral patterns. Other limitations include lack of socioeconomic context and appropriate data to represent the characteristics of a local community and its environment. To date, very few studies have tested the spatial relationships between mental health and recreation opportunities on a national level, while controlling for a variety of competing explanations (e.g., the social determinants of mental health). To address these gaps, this study used multi-level spatial data combined with various sources to: (1) identify variables that contribute to spatial disparities of mental health; (2) examine how selected variables influence spatial mental health disparities using a generalized linear model (GLM); (3) specify the spatial variation of the relationships between recreation opportunities and mental health in the continental U.S. using geographically weighted regression (GWR). The findings suggest that multiple factors associated with poor mental health days, particularly walkable access to local parks, showed the strongest explanatory power in both the GLM and GWR models. In addition, negative relationships were found with educational attainment, racial/ethnic dynamics, and lower levels of urbanization, while positive relationships were found with poverty rate and unemployment in the GLM. Finally, the GWR model detected differences in the strength and direction of associations for 3109 counties. These results may address the gaps in previous studies that focused on individual-level scales and did not include a spatial context.

scholarly journals Mental Health Issues in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island: Findings From the Healthy Aging Data Reports

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 95-95
Author(s):  
Taylor Jansen ◽  
Richard Chunga ◽  
Chae Man Lee ◽  
Shuangshuang Wang ◽  
Haowei Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Health Indicators ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Issues

Abstract Mental health issues in older adults are prevalent, yet often undetected or untreated and can contribute to poor physical health, increased disability, and higher mortality rates. The current study describes state and local community rates of mental health indicators of older adults 65+ in MA, NH, and RI. Data sources used to calculate rates were: the American Community Survey (2009-2013 RI, 2012-2016 MA and NH), the Medicare Current Beneficiary Summary File (2012-2013 RI, 2015 MA and NH), and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (2012-2014 RI, 2013-2015 MA, and 2014-2016 NH). Small area estimation techniques were used to calculate age-sex adjusted community rates for more than 150 health indicators. This research examines disparities in rates for 3 mental health indicators depression, self-reported poor mental health, and self-reported poor/fair health status. Depression rates: MA 31.5% (19.91-48.82%), RI 30% (19.7-38.5%), and NH 28.8% (18.26-40.56%). Self-reported poor mental health: RI 7.5% (4.8-12.5%), MA 7.0% (2.10-16.59%), and NH 6.9% (3.42-10.13%). Self-reported fair/poor health: RI 20.4% (8.6-38.8%), MA 18.0%, (7.2-34.38%), and NH 16.5% (13.31-21.60%). Results showed variability in rates across states. MA had the highest rates of depression, the greatest differences in rates, and access to the most mental health providers. RI had the highest community rates for poor physical and mental health, and the highest percentage of residents age 85+. Understanding the distribution of community rates makes disparities evident, and may help practitioners and policymakers to allocate resources to areas of highest need. Research funded by the Tufts Health Plan Foundation.

scholarly journals New horizons in supporting older people's health and wellbeing: is social prescribing a way forward?

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Hamilton-West ◽  
Alisoun Milne ◽  
Sarah Hotham
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Social Prescribing ◽  
Age Related

Abstract Older people’s health and care needs are changing. Increasing numbers live with the combined effects of age-related chronic illness or disability, social isolation and/or poor mental health. Social prescribing has potential to benefit older people by helping those with social, emotional or practical needs to access relevant services and resources within the local community. However, researchers have highlighted limitations with the existing evidence-base, while clinicians express concerns about the quality of onward referral services, liability and upfront investment required. The current article provides a critical review of evidence on social prescribing, drawing on the RE-AIM Framework (Glasgow et al., 1999) to identify questions that will need to be addressed in order to inform both the design and delivery of services and the evolving research agenda around social prescribing. We emphasise the need for researchers and planners to work together to develop a more robust evidence-base, advancing understanding of the impacts of social prescribing (on individuals, services and communities), factors associated with variation in outcomes and strategies needed to implement effective and sustainable programmes. We also call on policymakers to recognise the need for investment in allied initiatives to address barriers to engagement in social prescribing programmes, provide targeted support for carers and improve access to older adult mental health services. We conclude that social prescribing has potential to support older people’s health and wellbeing, but this potential will only be realised through strategic alignment of research, local level implementation and national policy and investment.

Correlates and predictors of loneliness in older-adults: a review of quantitative results informed by qualitative insights

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiska Cohen-Mansfield ◽  
Haim Hazan ◽  
Yaffa Lerman ◽  
Vera Shalom
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Environmental Planning ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTBackground:Older persons are particularly vulnerable to loneliness because of common age-related changes and losses. This paper reviews predictors of loneliness in the older population as described in the current literature and a small qualitative study.Methods:Peer-reviewed journal articles were identified from psycINFO, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar from 2000–2012. Overall, 38 articles were reviewed. Two focus groups were conducted asking older participants about the causes of loneliness.Results:Variables significantly associated with loneliness in older adults were: female gender, non-married status, older age, poor income, lower educational level, living alone, low quality of social relationships, poor self-reported health, and poor functional status. Psychological attributes associated with loneliness included poor mental health, low self-efficacy beliefs, negative life events, and cognitive deficits. These associations were mainly studied in cross-sectional studies. In the focus groups, participants mentioned environmental barriers, unsafe neighborhoods, migration patterns, inaccessible housing, and inadequate resources for socializing. Other issues raised in the focus groups were the relationship between loneliness and boredom and inactivity, the role of recent losses of family and friends, as well as mental health issues, such as shame and fear.Conclusions:Future quantitative studies are needed to examine the impact of physical and social environments on loneliness in this population. It is important to better map the multiple factors and ways by which they impact loneliness to develop better solutions for public policy, city, and environmental planning, and individually based interventions. This effort should be viewed as a public health priority.

scholarly journals The social underpinnings of mental distress in the time of COVID-19 – time for urgent action

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolas Rose ◽  
Nick Manning ◽  
Richard Bentall ◽  
Kamaldeep Bhui ◽  
Rochelle Burgess ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Community Mental Health Services ◽  
Community Services ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mental Health Support

We argue that predictions of a ‘tsunami’ of mental health problems as a consequence of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the lockdown are overstated; feelings of anxiety and sadness are entirely normal reactions to difficult circumstances, not symptoms of poor mental health.  Some people will need specialised mental health support, especially those already leading tough lives; we need immediate reversal of years of underfunding of community mental health services.  However, the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on the most disadvantaged, especially BAME people placed at risk by their social and economic conditions, were entirely predictable. Mental health is best ensured by urgently rebuilding the social and economic supports stripped away over the last decade. Governments must pump funds into local authorities to rebuild community services, peer support, mutual aid and local community and voluntary sector organisations.  Health care organisations must tackle racism and discrimination to ensure genuine equal access to universal health care.  Government must replace highly conditional benefit systems by something like a universal basic income. All economic and social policies must be subjected to a legally binding mental health audit. This may sound unfeasibly expensive, but the social and economic costs, not to mention the costs in personal and community suffering, though often invisible, are far greater.

A Sickness of the Soul: An Exploration into Self and Social Stigma towards Help Seeking in Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandersan Onie ◽  
Amelia Citra Kirana ◽  
Adisya ◽  
Ninette Putri Mustika ◽  
Veronica Adesla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Mental Health Stigma ◽  
Public Stigma ◽  
Societal Norms

Objective: Mental health stigma is pervasive in Indonesia – a country with over 270 million inhabitants. Individuals with mental health have been socially ostracized, considered unreligious or unclean, and in some areas, been locked up in makeshift stocks or prisons. Resultingly, individuals suffering from poor mental health may not seek help. Therefore, an important step in improving mental wellbeing and promoting help seeking for mental health is understanding help seeking stigma and its associated factors.Methods: In this study, 409 individuals from the local community completed a guided survey, consisting of self-stigma (internalized stigma against help seeking) and public stigma (societal norms against help seeking) questionnaires, demographic details, questionnaires assessing depression and anxiety, followed by an open-ended question on how they conceptualize mental health.Results: Analyses revealed that while public stigma does not differ as a function of demographics or either anxiety or depression, self-stigma decreased as family income and education increased – in contrast with previous findings. Further, there was a negative association between anxiety and self-stigma. Interestingly, while we found that over 30% of the respondents associated mental health with spiritual terms in the open-ended questions – in line with the prevalent use of the term ‘a sickness of the soul’ to describe mental health - further analysis suggested that stigma did not differ among individuals who did and did not adopt this viewpoint.Conclusions: Therefore, our analyses suggest that while the internalization of stigma against help seeking can vary as a function of several factors, thus far, how an individual perceives social acceptability of help seeking is uniform. Further, we provide evidence that the link between help seeking is not associated with conceptualizing mental health in religious terms.

A Longitudinal Study of Mental Health in Emerging Adults

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica S. Bachmann ◽  
Hansjörg Znoj ◽  
Katja Haemmerli
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Need Satisfaction ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Consistency Model ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Health Model

Emerging adulthood is a time of instability. This longitudinal study investigated the relationship between mental health and need satisfaction among emerging adults over a period of five years and focused on gender-specific differences. Two possible causal models were examined: (1) the mental health model, which predicts that incongruence is due to the presence of impaired mental health at an earlier point in time; (2) the consistency model, which predicts that impaired mental health is due to a higher level of incongruence reported at an earlier point in time. Emerging adults (N = 1,017) aged 18–24 completed computer-assisted telephone interviews in 2003 (T1), 2005 (T2), and 2008 (T3). The results indicate that better mental health at T1 predicts a lower level of incongruence two years later (T2), when prior level of incongruence is controlled for. The same cross-lagged effect is shown for T3. However, the cross-lagged paths from incongruence to mental health are marginally associated when prior mental health is controlled for. No gender differences were found in the cross-lagged model. The results support the mental health model and show that incongruence does not have a long-lasting negative effect on mental health. The results highlight the importance of identifying emerging adults with poor mental health early to provide support regarding need satisfaction.

Inclusion of people with psychosocial disability in low and middle income contexts: a practice review

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Lea Fernandes ◽  
Stephanie Cantrill ◽  
Raj Kamal ◽  
Ram Lal Shrestha
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Global Mental Health ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Health Programs ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Psychosocial Disability ◽  
Practice Review ◽  
Mental Health Programs ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Much of the literature about mental illness in low and middle income countries (LMICs) focuses on prevalence rates, the treatment gap, and scaling up access to medical expertise and treatment. As a cause and consequence of this, global mental health programs have focused heavily on service delivery without due exploration of how programs fit into a broader picture of culture and community. There is a need for research which highlights approaches to broader inclusion, considering historical, cultural, social, and economic life contexts and recognises the community as a determinant of mental health — in prevention, recovery, resilience, and support of holistic wellness. The purpose of this practice review is to explore the experiences of three local organisations working with people with psychosocial disability living in LMICs: Afghanistan, India, and Nepal. All three organisations have a wealth of experience in implementing mental health programs, and the review brings together evidence of this experience from interviews, reports, and evaluations. Learnings from these organisations highlight both successful approaches to strengthening inclusion and the challenges faced by people with psychosocial disability, their families, and communities.  The findings can largely be summarised in two categories, although both are very much intertwined: first, a broad advocacy, public health, and policy approach to inclusion; and second, more local, community-based initiatives. The evidence draws attention to the need to acknowledge the complexities surrounding mental health and inclusion, such as additional stigmatisation due to multidimensional poverty, gender inequality, security issues, natural disasters, and additional stressors associated with access. Organisational experiences also highlight the need to work with communities’ strengths to increase capacity around inclusion and to apply community development approaches where space is created for communities to generate holistic solutions. Most significantly, approaches at all levels require efforts to ensure that people with psychosocial disability are given a voice and are included in shaping programs, policies, and appropriate responses.

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