How Inequalities Impact Mental Health

As we enter 2021 conversations about the intersection of inequity and mental health are more
important than ever. In Grad Minds second winter workshop “How Inequalities Impact Mental
Health”, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion facilitators Samiha Sharif, Shaneka Anderson, and
Bukama Mugisha-Muntu discussed some of the social determinants of mental health and
provided space to graduate students for discussing their experiences to foster solidarity. In
addition, resources were provided to students to develop peer to peer support strategies.

How is Mental Health different from Mental Illness?

Both of these terms exist on a fluid continuum. However, while mental health is always there
and may be positive or negative, mental illness affects a person’s ability to function over a
long period of time. For example, an individual continuously managing a mental illness may
report optimal or poor mental health. Moreover, individuals with no symptoms of mental
illness can still experience and be affected by poor mental health.

What is Health Equity?

Health equity can be framed as the absence of unfair and avoidable or remediable differences
in health among population groups defined socially, economically, demographically or
geographically. The non-medical factors that contribute to health inequity are known as social
determinants of health and they significantly influence health outcomes. Within Canada, they
are responsible for around 75% of illness, and research shows that social determinants can be
more important than health care or lifestyle choice in influencing health. Some specific
examples of social determinants of mental health are income, disability, access to health care,
race, housing security, and education level.

Discussion + Resources

Workshop attendees were also presented with several scenarios of situations graduate
students can face that can impact their mental health and discussed the following questions:

1) What power dynamics were at play in this situation?

2) How do you think this situation can impact the student’s mental health?
3) Are there strategies this student can use to set boundaries and advocate for
themselves?
4) What resources could this student reach out to?

Understanding which resources are available and how to seek them out can be difficult. The
presenters helped to provide clarity into the models of care that support us and facilitated a
discussion into how we each take care of our mental health in the face of health inequity.

Models of Care:
- Self-Care: Activities that help you find meaning and that support your growth and
groundedness (i.e. going to therapy, meditating, eating healthy)
- Self-Soothing: Activities that provide distraction and/or comfort in difficult times (i.e.
cuddling, exercise, singing)
- Community Care: Workarounds for systems that don’t inherently support care (i.e.
childcare & education, co-housing, credit unions)
- Structural Care: Systems that support community care, self-care and self-soothing (i.e.
efficient public transportation, paid family leave, racial equity & justice)