editorial
| Pages | 2-5 |
| Date | 01 March 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17465729200700001 |
| Published date | 01 March 2007 |
| Author | Lynne Friedli |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
EDITORIAL
2journal of public mental health
vol 6 • issue 1
©Pavilion Journals (Br ighton) Ltd
Lynne Friedli
lynne.friedli@
btopenworld.com
editorial
As this journal goes to press, levels of political concern
and community anguish about the experiences of
children in the UK have been sharpened by two,
perhaps not unrelated, developments: a series of
teenage shootings in Manchester and south London,
and the UK’s position at the bottom of the Unicef
league of children’s well-being in the developed world
(Unicef, 2007).
Unicef looked at 40 indicators (for the period
2000–2003) covering material well-being, family
and peer relationships, health and safety,behaviour
risks, education, and sense of well-being. Those at
the top of the list – the Netherlands, Sweden,
Denmark and Finland – were also those with the
lowest levels of relative income poverty. In the UK,
relative poverty for children has doubled since 1979.
Although more recent figures show a reduction in
the percentage of children living in poverty, notably
in Scotland (Palmer et al, 2006), income
inequalities and inequalities of opportunity are stark.
For example, analysis of the much-heralded rise in
the numbers of young people accessing higher
education shows a major increase among those with
parents in the richest 20% income bracket, and only
very modest gains among those in the poorest 20%
(Machin et al, 2005). The Unicef report found that
the risk factors most closely and consistently
associated with child abuse and neglect are poverty,
stress, and parental drug and alcohol abuse – factors
that are also associated with youth offending. There
is an absence of data on the socio-economic status
of recipients of the 7,356 Asbos issued in England
between 1999–2005 (nearly half of which were
issued to 10–17 year olds). A recent study by the
Youth Justice Board found that recipients of Asbos
were most likely to be from backgrounds
characterised by family breakdown, educational
difficulties, abuse, or bereavement, and to live in
high crime neighbourhoods (Youth Justice Board,
2006). Some reports suggest an over-representation
of black and minority ethnic young people, and that
around of a third of the young people involved have
mental health problems.
Concerns both about children and crime are
central to two areas of ongoing interest to this
journal: the debates about well-being, and a
revisiting of the literature on inequalities.
Well-being debates
The final report in the DEFRA series that addresses
the question ‘How might policy change with an
explicit well-being focus?’ (Marks et al, 2006)
explores the relationship between sustainable
development and well-being (see jpmh 5.3 for
reviews of the previous reports). The authors make
astrong case for using a well-being perspective to
reduce ‘the tension between environmental
sustainability and the current model of socio-
economic development’ (p11). While the core
arguments are becoming more familiar – economic
growth depends on patterns of consumption that
damage both the natural and the psychosocial
environment – there is also recognition of a key
unanswered question: is it possible to avoid
structural instability without endless consumption
growth? Addressing this will involve presenting a
stronger dossier on the relationship between current
economic and fiscal policy and key indicators of
psychosocial instability such as crime and violence,
as well as psychological distress. The report makes a
number of sound recommendations for the direction
of future policy and research, including the
protection of social and psychological spaces,
curbing advertising aimed at children, and the
regulation of working hours. But it will need to go
considerably further if it hopes to have any impact
on the root causes of instability.
Further contributions to these debates come
from a collaboration between the Scottish
Executive’s National Programme for Improving
Mental Health and Well-being and the Glasgow
Centre for Population Health (www.gcph.co.uk/).
These include five welcome and interesting
discussion papers on cultural influences on mental
health and well-being in Scotland, written by
Sandra Carlisle of Glasgow University (www.well
scotland.info/publications/consultations4.html). Of
particular interest is the introduction to the work of
Eeva Sointu (Sointu, 2005), who argues that the
pursuit of well-being has become an affirmation of,
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