New report linking disadvantage and exclusion to psychosis
It has been known for a long time that some kinds of adverse mental health experiences are statistically far higher for particular groups in society, particularly those experiencing disadvantage and exclusion. In this case the report in question looked at the experience of Black African and Caribbean mental health service users in Lambeth, Southwark and South Eastern areas of London.
What was really innovative about the report is that instead of undertaking a distant, head-scratching desk analysis, instead it simply asked service users what they thought.
Ethnic differences in psychosis—Lay epidemiology explanations was published by a group of academics linked to the groundbreaking Social Science and Urban Public Health Institute which has produced several reports on related issues which provide some compelling insights.
Not a uniquely urban experience?
Exclusion and disadvantage are not uniquely urban issues, but black and ethnic minority community members tend to be far higher in western cities than in rural areas, as is disadvantage in general.
Two critical issues…
There are two important issues that this report highlights for approaches to urban psychology.
Firstly, we need to know more about the effects of multiple disadvantage in urban environments on mental wellbeing as a whole, including but not limited to issues like psychosis, and how services need to evolve to address this, including but going beyond those for mental health.
The second is that in any research that explores urban wellbeing, asking people how they feel and what they think the underlying causes of their experiences are should be the starting point. That might not sound very radical, but sadly it is too rarely the case that research starts from the perspective of the citizen, rather than the institutions of the city and its governance.
