Impact of Social Exclusion on Mental Health for Homeless People
The social exclusion concept is a known context that brings out an understanding and a measure of poverty at a multidimensional level. It is among the factors at the forefront of the social determinants of mental health in Australia (Warburton, Scharf, & Walsh, 2017). The homeless and socially exclusive individuals are at a high risk of suffering mental health that commonly occurs in Australia’s regional and rural stabilities, and amongst the residents of the clusters of the capital cities in Australia. Therefore, it becomes vital for any registered nurse practising their profession in Australia to familiarize themselves with the approaches that encourage social inclusion to alleviate mental health concerns. The paper showcases a masterly of the social exclusion concept, the impact it has on mental health and explains a strategy that upholds social inclusion through a mental health program among Australia’s homeless residents.
Impacts of Social Exclusion
Homeless populations experience the impact of social exclusion by interfering with mental health. It then leads one to lose self-control, become hostile, bear a negative attitude, develop anti-social behaviour, and deficiency in self-control. When people encounter rejection, they tend to portray a weird character that pushes them to be aggressive while dealing with others, and this may bring forth mass violence. Such anger can only be brought down when someone comes in to embrace them by showing them love and creating an environment of social connection (Watson, Crawley, & Kane, 2016). Social exclusion also denies one the desire to participate in pro-social actions as they lack the sense of belonging from others. Mostly, social exclusion also impacts the health of a person by breaking self-regulation. The exclusion of a person makes one fail to embrace the benefits accruing from acceptance. It will affect their overall performance and impair their mechanism of critical thinking.
The attitude of a person is fundamental while dealing with psychological processes. It is pivotal in making responses while interacting with people. It also brings out emphasis to connect people socially, a thing that social exclusion fails to achieve. Watson (2016) adds that it affects the patterns for the young population’s cognitive processes that end up disturbing them even when they become adults. Homeless children may grow up with a negative perception that limits their willingness to interact. Rapid and consistent exposure cultivate social pain that often activates psychological systems leading to an intensification of neuroendocrine and cardiovascular constraints. The entire burden lands on the doors of the healthcare practitioners as an effect on the mind leads to other physical body complications.
Execution of the Mental Health Program as a Strategy to uphold Social Inclusion of Homeless People in Rural Australia
The programs that promote mental health favour the homeless people living in the clusters by promoting social inclusion. It also saves health practitioners the burden of attending to health issues as homelessness acts as a root cause for health complications. The homeless populations face the difficulties of accessing the health centre for mental treatment due to stigma, poor infrastructure, illiteracy, and low access to services. People living in clusters may also perceive a lack of confidentiality on their health matters (A.O.B., 2016). The resilience of the community is integral in achieving the success of mental health programs. These marginalized individuals need to beat the challenge of social exclusion by inducing an intrinsic capacity to overcome the pressures that they encounter daily (De Deuge, Hoang, Kent, Mond, Bridgman, Skromanis, & Auckland, 2020). An example of a mental health program was promoted in Tasmania in Australia, where the focus was to prevent suicide cases.
Tasmania State of Australia is an island that lies in the Southern part of the mainland. Its approximate population is 520, 000 residents who reside mostly in the semi-rural and rural areas. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016), Tasmania has a record of the second highest standardized suicidal case rate in Australia. As per 2017, the rate stood at 17.0 in a population of 100,000 people compared to the national mean of 11.7 among 100,000 people. The data indicated that more of the suicide cases happened in rural areas. It called for the attention of the local, state government, and N.G.O.s to advocate for mental promotion.
A mental health program was in 2016, initiated by a non-profit organization. The focus was to help homeless families and rural communities deal with mental health issues by preventing alarming suicide cases. According to De Deuge (2020), the aim of the program in curbing the issue was to instil self-regulation, confidence, acceptance, connectedness, and resilience among the people living in rural Tasmania. The program’s functionality involved the creation of nine Community Reference Groups (C.R.G.s) at local levels all over the communities in rural Tasmania. The structure of C.R.G.s contained community leadership that lobbied for growth, facilitating health, and preventing the risk of suicide in every community. Auckland et al. (2018) indicate that a research team from CRH (Centre for Rural Health) from the University of Tasmania received an appointment to evaluate the program. The evaluation was to determine how engaging community resilience impacted program implementation. It also explored the obstacles to executing the program successfully.
The social inclusion of homeless people through the program sent a sign of concern, reducing the cases of mental illness. The evaluation of the program revealed that homeless individuals’ resilience provided an opportunity to present some sense of connection and care. It proved that it is likely for such programs to offer success and become sustainable. When the area subjected to much pressure, one will tend to experience cases of depression, anxiety, and discomfort that will prevent them from concentrating on crucial matters of life that will lead to growth such as education, infrastructural development, and farming. Homeless people live an uncertain life about the future. Expressing concern in their daily lives will instil a sense of belonging in them.
Literature Review
Several studies have looked into the matter of social inclusion and exclusion and deduced the effects that they might cause. They have indicated how the problem of social exclusion mostly lands states into spending much on in catering for health. Society needs to be socially inclusive by expressing fundamental values such as freedom, justice, human rights, and equality. Stafford (2017), in their studies, showed how homelessness contributes to enormous health constraints. It leads to an increase in the cases of illness, lessens the hope to live, and upsurges the use of hospital services. The social determiners view it as a pivotal contributor to mental health. Then, the result is due to the adversity of economic and social situations (Stafford, 2017).
Jelinek, Jiwa, Gibson, & Lynch (2008) argued that the homeless population experiences many hardships due to the lack of shelter. They experience much exposure to cold, sun, rain that affect their sleeping patterns and also threatening their security. The encounter is traumatic and is challenging to comprehend, especially for the young ones. The feeling of alienation makes them delay action whenever caught up with an illness. They only get their treatments when the disease has already advanced to a more complicated stage that can only be worked on through indulging expensive treatment (Jelinek et al., 2008). Homeless individuals face health issues that get worse when subjected to other social determinants such as social disconnection, family disagreements, and psychological trauma. When all such social challenges accumulate, it brings forth a challenge for the traditional clinical restrictions. Jelinek et al. (2008) continue to support that the underlying issues require addressing and that there should be efforts to curb homelessness to avoid many expenses on treatment.
In their work, Barry (2019) claims that the people who propel the promotion of mental health claim to be mental health promoters while the professionals do not do so under the title. They instead use titles such as therapists, physicians, or social workers. Most of the communities make mental health seem like a hidden agenda. In recent years, the promotion of mental health has tended to appear to have many specializations. He adds that the promotion of life has much to do with the context of enriching the quality of life rendered to people. This has led academic institutions to develop more courses that enhance the quality of lifestyle. Extensive research will produce a wide-body containing the knowhow to effectively maneuver the processes that will enhance the quality of mental health (Barry, 2019). The event will happen to either individuals or groups. Inclusivity can be brought forth by providing a place where the homeless can enjoy shelter and motivate them to interact with others. This can be done by setting schools, community-based projects, and upholding their participation in social gatherings.
There is a massive pack of benefits that social inclusivity brings to society. The government ends up alleviating the negative impacts that arise from social exclusivity. There will be less money spent on health sectors to treat the mental problems that accumulate due to mental illnesses. The problems of security will reduce and thus lead to the development of a state. Mental health programs help in promoting inclusivity and presenting a sense of concern to the less privileged. It calls for the N.G.O.s, local, and state governments to join hands in building the residents through curbing mental illnesses.
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics. A.B.O. Causes of Death, Australia 2016. A.B.S., Ed. Canberra. 2017. https://www.abs.gov.au/as stats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/3303.0~{}2016~{}Main%20Features~{}Australia\T1\textquoterights%20leading%20causes%20of%20death,%202016~{}3.
Barry, M. M., Clarke, A. M., Petersen, I., & Jenkins, R. (Eds.). (2019). Implementing mental health promotion. Springer Nature.
De Deuge, J., Hoang, H., Kent, K., Mond, J., Bridgman, H., Skromanis, S., & Auckland, S. (2020). Impacts of community resilience on the implementation of a mental health promotion program in rural Australia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(6), 2031.
Jelinek, G. A., Jiwa, M., Gibson, N. P., & Lynch, A. M. (2008). Frequent attenders at emergency departments: a linked‐data population study of adult patients. Medical Journal of Australia, 189(10), 552-556.
Stafford, A., & Wood, L. (2017). Tackling health disparities for people who are homeless? The international journal of environmental research and public health starts with social determinants, 14(12), 1535.
Warburton, J., Scharf, T., & Walsh, K. (2017). Flying under the radar? Risks of social exclusion for older people in rural communities in Australia, Ireland, and Northern Ireland. Sociologia Ruralis, 57(4), 459-480.
Watson, J., Crawley, J., & Kane, D. (2016). Social exclusion, health and hidden homelessness. Public Health, 139, 96–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2016.05.017