Supporting patients experiencing poverty-related mental distress: Development and evaluation of a training resource in general practices in eleven regions of England

Research shows strong links between poverty and poor mental health
in England, with data demonstrating that those who are economically
inactive or unemployed are more likely to report mental health problems than those on higher incomes or in employment (Baker and
Kirk-Wade, 2023). As in many other western, neoliberal contexts,
mental health strategies and clinical guidelines in England continue to
draw heavily on a psychiatric diagnosis system in which diverse forms of
mental distress1 are framed as an individual psychological problem
rather than as an understandable response to existing problems (Byng
et al., 2019). This in turn means patients are encouraged to understand
their distress as a disease, and that available support currently remains
dominated by medical or psychological interventions that aim to ‘fix’
the person, rather than interventions that seek to address (at individual
or community level) what are often broader social and structural
stressors associated with poverty and disadvantage, for example, poor
housing, low pay, unemployment, social isolation and substance misuse.