Editorial
| Date | 29 July 2010 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5042/jpmh.2010.0323 |
| Pages | 2-3 |
| Published date | 29 July 2010 |
| Author | Woody Caan |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
2journal of public mental health
vol 9 • issue 2
© Pier Professional Ltd, 2010
10.5042/jpmh.2010.0323
asylum seekers (in north east London), I know that
the health of recen t migra nts who arrive d from
places as varied a s Somalia, K osovo or Sr i Lanka
is es pecially poor. To survive in urban Britain –
lonel y, poor, friendl ess and carrying the bur den
of a t rauma tic histo ry – is espe ciall y di ffic ult
(McL eish, 20 05). Alt hough co nscious ly we ca n
train heal th professionals in ‘unconditional posi tive
regard’ at an unconscious level, we are just as prone
to prejudice as all the communities we come from
(Caan, 2008).
Tw o s mall co ntri buti ons to re duci ng the
population risk to menta l health from xenophobia
com e fro m soc ial capit al re searc h by Puttn am
(2001 ), who o bserved developm ent of tr ust and
reciprocity within health y networks, and from one
of the Five Ways to Wellbeing described by the New
Economics Foundation (2008):
‘[Give] policies that p rovide accessi ble, enjoyable
and rewarding w ays of participation and ex change
will en able more ind ividuals to ta ke part in so cial
and political life.’
One of the greatest public health challenges is an
effective understanding of altruism and the starting
point of Harma n (2010) i s ‘be kin d to stra ngers!’.
There is no single E nglish word that captures this,
but someday generosity of spirit may be somethin g
for so ciety to est eem in p lace of nor malis ing
di str ust a nd bi got ry? O ne of t he st ron ges t
fact ors in connecti ng comm unities is nur turing
intergenerationa l links, and we are looking at ways
of improving communication between older people
fearful about youth crime and the adol escents who
live in the same neighbourhoo d (Statham, 2009).
Sur vival in o ur c urren t, de nsely popu lated
urban civilization is not sustainab le, as our climate
chang es (Griff iths et al , 2009). However, we are
learning mo re and more about usi ng contact with
nat ure, wit hin and arou nd c ities , to pro mote
both hea lth and sustaina bility (Burls et al, 2010).
A k ey asp ect of such green public healt h (Th e
Royal Society fo r the Protection of Birds, 2009) is
‘volunte ering your wa y to health’. This proves to
be a powerful way to give and the legacy of natural
capital may last for generati ons.
One p rio ri ty fr om Fa ir So ci ety ,
Health y Lives: T he Marmot R eview
is to ‘ create and d evelop healt hy and
susta inable pl aces and c ommunitie s’
( Ma rm ot , 2 01 0) . T o g et to
grip s with inequa lities across communi ties, the
Chi ef M edica l Of ficer see s a need to devel op
mor e s tati stica l u nder stand ing amon g p ubli c
heal th pr actiti oners (Caan, 2010 a). Th is is sue
of Jou rnal o f Publ ic Men tal He alth contain s two
excel lent examp les of how wise use of statis tical
da ta ca n dee pen o ur eng age me nt wit h our
communities. These epidemiological papers
hi ghli ght the in equa liti es in ment al heal th,
especially the prevalence of severe and enduring
men tal i llness . Tul loch and Priebe revi ew th e
diffe rent popul ation meas ures avai lable to g uide
commissioners in planning mental health servic es,
and apply t hese varied indices t o urban areas that
are pr edominantl y poor, cro wded and e thnically
fragmen ted (in north east London). In four area s
of England, Kirkbride and colleagues identify two
important, social determinants of severe mental
illness: membership of black and mino rity ethnic
groups and reside nce in area s of high p opulation
density both increase the risk of psychosis. Perhaps
severe illne ss could have been prev ented in about
100, 000 ind ividuals , if we knew h ow to p rotect
against those two socio-environmental risk factors.
Not onl y are depri ved urban ar eas home to more
adults at risk from a wide range of mental disorders,
they contain mo re children dependent on pa rents
with chron ic problems, and so harbour the risk of
perpe tuating inequalit ies acros s the ge nerations
(Caan , 2010b) . Mental health promotion is the
onl y cos t-eff ectiv e app roach to reduci ng s uch
majo r inequa lities, during the pre sent pe riod of
economic ‘austerity’ (McDaid & Knapp, 2010).
Since the 16th century a nd the be ginning o f
Empir e, Britai n has no t had a g ood trac k record
of soci al i nclus ion f or e thnic min oriti es. The
three main approaches of elected governments
– as sim ilat ion o r sub jug ati on or es pec ial ly
indifference to diverging cultures – have not
reduced inequalities in the health of several
large p opulations living in th e UK. Having been
involved i n the primary med ical services pilo t for
EDITORIAL
Woody Caan
Editor
Email: Woody.caan@anglia.ac.uk
Editorial
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