Lydia Moran
As the conversation and awareness around ‘mental health’ evolves, there is a danger that the term will become vague without a clear understanding of what it actually means. So I’d like to start by sharing how I conceptualized this issue’s theme and how I believe the stories that emerge from it can help create new understanding.
The Minnesota Department of Health distinguishes between mental health and mental illness, but they are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to have poor mental health but not have a mental illness, which is defined as “debilitating.” For example, “social isolation, feeling helpless, lacking a sense of purpose, being unemployed, and high stressors.” [including] poor housing and poverty. ” Good mental health despite having a mental illness, meaning symptoms are well-managed and “a strong support system, life satisfaction and purpose, family, employment, a sense of empowerment; It is also possible to have a positive identity.
This means that it is important to recognize how mental health is inseparable from our environment and life circumstances. They consist of socially and politically created conditions. In this issue, Dr Catherine Squires and Dr Taillon Coleman share their experiences of being marginalized through a process of ‘racial weathering’ throughout their academic careers, leading to poor mental and physical health. We are achieving this.
Amy Gage says chronic health conditions (which primarily affect women and are understandably underfunded in the world of scientific research) can leave people feeling helpless and isolated. This is reported.
Pre-existing mental illnesses can also be exacerbated by lack of access to care, which is happening right now in our state, especially among at-risk youth. Mickey Morissette reports, “With limited places to go, young people are confined to emergency rooms, juvenile detention centers, county facilities, or sent out of state.”
