The Social Determinants of Mental Health

The Social Determinants of Mental Health aims to fill the gap that exists in
the psychiatric, scholarly, and policy-related literature on the social
determinants of mental health: those factors stemming from where we learn, play,
live, work, and age that impact our overall mental health and well-being. The
editors and an impressive roster of chapter authors from diverse scholarly
backgrounds provide detailed information on topics such as discrimination and
social exclusion; adverse early life experiences; poor education; unemployment,
underemployment, and job insecurity; income inequality, poverty, and
neighborhood deprivation; food insecurity; poor housing quality and housing
instability; adverse features of the built environment; and poor access to
mental health care.

This thought-provoking book offers many beneficial
features for clinicians and public health professionals: Clinical vignettes
are included, designed to make the content accessible to readers who are
primarily clinicians and also to demonstrate the practical, individual-level
applicability of the subject matter for those who typically work at the public
health, population, and/or policy level. Policy implications are discussed
throughout, designed to make the content accessible to readers who work
primarily at the public health or population level and also to demonstrate the
policy relevance of the subject matter for those who typically work at the
clinical level. All chapters include five to six key points that focus on the
most important content, helping to both prepare the reader with a brief overview
of the chapter's main points and reinforce the "take-away" messages afterward.
In addition to the main body of the book, which focuses on selected individual
social determinants of mental health, the volume includes an in-depth overview
that summarizes the editors' and their colleagues' conceptualization, as well as
a final chapter coauthored by Dr. David Satcher, 16th Surgeon General of the
United States, that serves as a "Call to Action," offering specific actions that
can be taken by both clinicians and policymakers to address the social
determinants of mental health.

The editors have succeeded in the
difficult task of balancing the individual/clinical/patient perspective and the
population/public health/community point of view, while underscoring the need
for both groups to work in a unified way to address the inequities in
twenty-first century America. The Social Determinants of Mental Health gives
readers the tools to understand and act to improve mental health and reduce risk
for mental illnesses for individuals and communities.

Students preparing
for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) will also benefit from this book,
as the MCAT in 2015 will test applicants' knowledge of social determinants of
health. The social determinants of mental health are not distinct from the
social determinants of physical health, although they deserve special emphasis
given the prevalence and burden of poor mental health.