Mental health in Detroit – Detroit Community-Engaged Research Program

Mental health in Detroit

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According to a study by samhsa, the higher the poverty rate the more likely a community will be affected by mental illness. The author wrote that “The challenges that adults with mental illness face are made more difficult if they are living in poverty. For example, adults with mental illness who are living in poverty may face higher health care costs, decreased productivity, and poor general health.” Recently, I was reading a study that examined how the city of Detroit has become most vulnerable to mental illness before the pandemic. Today, these rates have been raised due to the pandemic.

Mental illness has a bidirectional relationship with hunger. A study based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics, found that the odds of a household experiencing food insecurity increased by 50 to 80 percent if a mother had moderate to severe depression. An issue here is that there is not enough focus on black mental health when it comes to funding and resources. This is interesting to me as the media often focuses on what the people of Detroit are doing or “not doing”  yet they don’t push to exploit the stereotypes that directly affect Detroit communities. 

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