Mental Health in Society

According to the World Health Organization, mental health 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. Here we explore how culture, homelessness, and addiction
impacts our mental health while establishing common upstream factors.
BY: MARY NGUYEN, BARBARA STERN, DANIEL SEITZ

BACKGROUND
MARY: What is homeless? Homelessness exists when people lack
safe, stable, and appropriate places to live. Without homes, no
health care, more health problems
Tents, overcrowded areas.
Barbara: The increasing number of homeless women with alcohol
and drug dependencies has ignited a greater flow in the magnitude
of studies on such disciplinary Research has taken a closer look the
personality disturbances that correlate with childhood abuse in
many alcohol and substance abuse women.
Daniel: Race: Not necessarily a biological category. One study found
that 85 percent of genetic diversity is found within a given racial
group. More often cultures classify people into racial groups
according to socially significant characteristics.
Ethnicity: The common heritage shared by a group. Groups who
have similar history, language, rituals and preferences for music
and food share the same ethnicity.
Culture: A common set of beliefs, norms and values. Culture doesnt
have to be bound to race or ethnicity, social groups like people with
the same profession or interests can share a common culture.

METHODS

RESULTS
Mary: Racial Disparities in Affordable Housing, and foreclosure.

Many of these people suffer from schizophrenia, schizoaffective

disorder, bipolar disorder or major depression. Left untreated
substance abuse is a result of homelessness rather than a cause.
People who are homeless often turn to drugs and alcohol to cope
with their situations.
System failures: difficult transitions from child welfare, inadequate
discharge planning for people leaving hospitals, corrections and
mental health and addictions facilities and a lack of support for
immigrants and refugees.
Personal/Individual factors: traumatic events(e.g. house fire or job
loss), personal crisis (e.g. family break-up or domestic violence),
Barbara: The comorbid characteristics of drug abuse

Persona
l
Trauma

Emotion
Sexual
al
Abuse
Abuse
Childho
Physical
od
Abuse
Abuse

RESULTS
Daniel: Language barriers are a large part of issues in health
treatment.
Doctors can misinterpret the feelings of a patient because of
the words they use. Some words have different connotations
based on the culture of the language, so literal translation
doesnt always work. A study showed that native Spanish
speaking patients who also spoke English and who were
diagnosed with schizophrenia, were rated as having a higher
level of pathology when interviewed in English than in
Spanish
Some mental illnesses are culturally bound, they only show
up within certain cultures expectations of culture can
influence how distress is expressed and perceived often these
culture bound syndromes can be overlooked by clinicians

Mary: surveys of the prevalence of psychotic illness, major

depression, alcohol and drug dependence, and personality disorder
that were based on interviews of samples of unselected homeless
people. bibliographic indexes, scanned reference lists metaregression analysis, including geographical region, sample size, and
diagnostic method.
Barbara: 445 Homeless women were screened and qualified to
take part in a paid study, based upon them approve application for
a substance abuse study. The complexities of co -morbidity in
connection with alcohol and substance abuse specifically in women.
Aiming to identify upstream patterns of behavior aims to identify
some upstream patterns of behavior as well as predict the
outcome.

CONCLUSIONS

Daniel: Studies of rates of mental illnesses in the population

Case studies looking at different individuals and how their culture
has influenced the mental health service that they receive.

OBJECTIVES
Mary: Objective is to find the cause of homelessness and
its affect on their mental health. Also to find common
relations towards culture and drug abuse.
Barbara: The objective of this topic is to support the
overall focus on homelessness and drug abuse among
women
Daniel: To learn how culture affect your mental health in
different aspects.

Stream Analysis: Upstream and Downstream

DISCUSSION
Mary: Mental health in homelessness affects women in addictions too

because they become homeless through it and from their abuse. It also
affects culture because those who are homeless are among the minority .
Barbara: The relationship between homeless women, alcohol and drug abuse and
personality disorders are closely associated with childhood ,sexual and mental abuse.
Many women who have managed to survive are still faced with depression, anxiety,
and mood disorders . Homeless women who were subjected to childhood abuse were
also more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs more than women who were not.
Daniel: Seeing how each culture views mental health differently was very

interesting. The different case studies showed different aspects of each

culture and how cultural traditions and beliefs can be misinterpreted or
ignored by physicians. I think that the disparity that we see in health services
is because of this lack of understanding. These case studies give a great
insight into how different cultural groups react to different stressors, and how
physicians can try and force their own cultural views into their diagnoses.

Mary: Homelessness affects a variety of people, different ages, gender,

and ethnic cultures. It can both the cause of mental illness or the result of
mental illness. Other causes include system failures, unemployment,
affordable housing and substance and drug abuse can be both the cause
(being left untreated) or the result.
Barbara: The homeless women who experienced childhood abuse were t
a greater risk for alcohol and drug abuse in addition to character
pathology. Homeless women's social context concluded it if far more likely
for them to socialize with other homeless women who have experienced
some form of abuse as well. This lowers their chances of changing their
social circle, of women who are alcohol and drug dependent.
Daniel: The mental health disparity between cultural groups in the United
States is because of the disparity in treatment opportunity for minorities.
Physicians need to take into consideration the cultures of their patients.
Great care needs to be taken when translating diagnoses or symptoms so
that their meanings are not lost.