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> Given the research I've read it's highly unlikely. Can you expand on this? I see a pretty direct line through an unpayable medical expense, inability to affo

by majos 7y ago

> Given the research I've read it's highly unlikely. Can you expand on this? I see a pretty direct line through an unpayable medical expense, inability to afford housing, and declining mental health from all of the associated stress. Add in the unpredictable nature of health scares and that seems like a terrible mixture for mental health.

mfer 7y ago
I'll start with one example. The rising suicide rate. Since 2010 there has been a large increase in teen girl suicide rate. A significant cause of this is social media and smart phones. This has to do with bullying, comparisons, and other things. [3] Now take a place like Texas where the homeless population has decreased [2] in the same window the suicide rate has gone up [1]. This is just an example. I know there is a lot of political talk on some of this. I would suggest taking some time to read the data which is prevalent. You can easily find it with search engines. > I see a pretty direct line through an unpayable medical expense, inability to afford housing, and declining mental health from all of the associated stress. Add in the unpredictable nature of health scares and that seems like a terrible mixture for mental health. Can you point me to some research on this? Data researchers have observed? I've not seen this. [1] https://www.utsystem.edu/sites/default/files/news/assets/Suicide%20in%20Texas.pdf https://www.utsystem.edu/sites/default/files/news/assets/Sui... [2] https://www.thn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2016-Infographic-Texas.jpg https://www.thn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2016-Infograp... [3] http://www.jeantwenge.com/research/ http://www.jeantwenge.com/research/
- majos 7y ago
  Your original comment claimed that research suggests that improving access to healthcare is "highly unlikely" to change the state of American mental health. I'm not following how this second comment makes that case. It looks like you are extrapolating from "social media use causes poorer mental health" to "access to healthcare and housing are less important to mental health than social media use". The statistics and studies cited don't make this claim, so I don't understand where you're getting it from. I have no studies in mind that connect mental health and access to healthcare and housing. I was curious if you had studies suggesting the opposite, since the connection appears almost tautologically true to me.
  - mfer 7y ago
    To use an analogy... when people were smoking a lot of people got lung cancer. Doctors can try to treat that and many people died. Access to health care did not mean that everyone who got care was cured of their lung cancer. Instead, people had to go to the root of the problem. Smoking causing lung cancer. They worked to reduce the rate of smoking to reduce the rate of cancer. This was not related to someone's access to medical treatments because access to medical treatment wasn't a silver bullet fix. The same idea applies here. We talk a lot about healthcare access (and I'm not suggesting that should stop). We don't talk enough about going after what's causing the mental illness and fixing that.
- DanBC 7y ago
  > A significant cause of this is social media and smart phones. We don't know this, and your comment is not supported by your link. Suicide is a complex phenomena and to distil it down to only social media feels a bit reductive.

by majos 7y ago

mfer 7y ago

I'll start with one example. The rising suicide rate. Since 2010 there has been a large increase in teen girl suicide rate. A significant cause of this is social media and smart phones. This has to do with bullying, comparisons, and other things. [3] Now take a place like Texas where the homeless population has decreased [2] in the same window the suicide rate has gone up [1]. This is just an example. I know there is a lot of political talk on some of this. I would suggest taking some time to read the data which is prevalent. You can easily find it with search engines. > I see a pretty direct line through an unpayable medical expense, inability to afford housing, and declining mental health from all of the associated stress. Add in the unpredictable nature of health scares and that seems like a terrible mixture for mental health. Can you point me to some research on this? Data researchers have observed? I've not seen this. [1] https://www.utsystem.edu/sites/default/files/news/assets/Suicide%20in%20Texas.pdf https://www.utsystem.edu/sites/default/files/news/assets/Sui... [2] https://www.thn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2016-Infographic-Texas.jpg https://www.thn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2016-Infograp... [3] http://www.jeantwenge.com/research/ http://www.jeantwenge.com/research/

majos 7y ago
Your original comment claimed that research suggests that improving access to healthcare is "highly unlikely" to change the state of American mental health. I'm not following how this second comment makes that case. It looks like you are extrapolating from "social media use causes poorer mental health" to "access to healthcare and housing are less important to mental health than social media use". The statistics and studies cited don't make this claim, so I don't understand where you're getting it from. I have no studies in mind that connect mental health and access to healthcare and housing. I was curious if you had studies suggesting the opposite, since the connection appears almost tautologically true to me.
- mfer 7y ago
  To use an analogy... when people were smoking a lot of people got lung cancer. Doctors can try to treat that and many people died. Access to health care did not mean that everyone who got care was cured of their lung cancer. Instead, people had to go to the root of the problem. Smoking causing lung cancer. They worked to reduce the rate of smoking to reduce the rate of cancer. This was not related to someone's access to medical treatments because access to medical treatment wasn't a silver bullet fix. The same idea applies here. We talk a lot about healthcare access (and I'm not suggesting that should stop). We don't talk enough about going after what's causing the mental illness and fixing that.
DanBC 7y ago
> A significant cause of this is social media and smart phones. We don't know this, and your comment is not supported by your link. Suicide is a complex phenomena and to distil it down to only social media feels a bit reductive.