Abstract:
This book aims to inform readers on conceptual, substantive,
and policy aspects of mental health and illness. The substance
of mental health inquiry is largely focussed on the study of
developmental processes of social stratification and important
social institutions such as the family, the labor market, and
work. Social and epidemiological surveys have become the main
tools for many of these studies that seek to understand human
development and social behavior across age cohorts and histor-
ical periods while being sensitive to the crucial way in which
biological predispositions interact with social context and the
environment.
Dealing effectively with mental health and illness involves many
sectors from general medicine to the criminal justice system,
but there is little effective coordination or integration. Some of
what we already know have been implemented in a constructive
way, but far too much of what we have learned remains to
be applied. Whether we are concerned with broad social deter-
minants such as extreme poverty, child abuse and neglect, poor
schooling, and stigmatization on the one hand or lack of access
to mental health services and a lack of appropriate balance in
treatment among medication, supportive care, and rehabilita-
tion services on the other, there remains a great gap between
what we know and what gets done. Some positive changes have
occurred, such as the growing acceptance of mental health as an
important aspect of health, and more accessibility to treatment
and trained mental health professionals. But as this book makes
clear, the social determinants of mental health problems and their management will continue to remain a challenge for scientists, professionals, and policy makers.
