The UN stated in a report, which Poverty triples the possibility of suffering from mental disorders. The organization places special emphasis on job insecurity.
Olivier De Schutterthe special rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights of the United Nations warned of these consequences blaming material consumption and competitiveness of “putting mental health in check”.
The Belgian was the author of the report titled “The burnout economy: poverty and mental health”which he presents this Thursday to the UN General Assembly.
There, it stands out that “The mental disorders generated by poverty are in turn an obstacle to getting out of it”. This situation really worries all countries in the world.
“People with lower incomes have up to three times more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and other illnesses common mental health than those with higher incomes,” he says.
The advance of mental disorders in the world
According to the report, 11% of the world’s populationthat is, more than 970 million people all over the world, suffer from some mental disorder.
Among them, 280 million suffer from depression and 301 million from anxiety. It is also remembered that Every year 700,000 people commit suicidethe fourth cause of death among young people between 15 and 29 years old.
On the other hand, it clarifies that depression is the main cause of illnessand that this is often due to lack of work or not having a decent and rewarding job.
In the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), between a third and half of claims for disability benefits are due to mental health reasonsand among young adults it is estimated that exceed 70%he adds.
Taking only the first year of the covid-19 pandemic, mental problems increased by 25%according to the report. Furthermore, with more than one trillion annual losses for the economy“the consequences of the increase in mental health problems are colossal both for individuals and for societies as a whole,” warns the rapporteur.
The influence of the labor market
Beyond discussing “how to increase the budget for mental health problems”De Schutter advises “influence the factors underlying to this epidemic of depression, anxiety and exhaustion.” In particular, it refers to “job insecurity, but also climate change.”
“It has been shown that Precarious work further worsens mental healthdue to insecurity, lack of bargaining power, unfair wages and extremely unpredictable work schedules, which make it impossible to achieve a healthy balance between work and personal life,” he exhibits.
For this reason, it calls on governments to “establish legal protections that guarantee decent work and a living wage, and reinforce social protection by providing an unconditional basic income, destigmatize mental health disorders and facilitate access to green spaces that allow reconnecting with nature.”
“Our obsession with growth created an economy of exhaustion: a race to increase the profits of a small elite in which millions of people have become too sick to run,” he points out.
To conclude, in his report he states: “Increasing GDP at all costs is creating a tidal wave of poor mental health in people in poverty.”
Source: Ambito
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