Economics and Mental Health in Our Country

In reviewing the article, it details how our current state of affairs in our country has been a situation that has been serious enough, to have greatly warranted the need for additional funding sources (federal) for unemployment, mental health treatment, as well as suicide prevention centers. The article breaks down statistics in our country reflecting millions of dollars going toward extra findings, to provide adequate treatments in our country. Financial stressors are one of the biggest sources of marital problems and mental health challenges. The recession in our country serves as a base for these numbers. The unemployment rate steadily increases and is expected to reach over 10% in the next 4-5 years.

We all are all too familiar with the lives and events of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow; notorious for the ambush on them, when they were killed in 1934, on May 23rd, in Louisiana. Why did they do it? Many historians have said that the Great Depression was the result of their actions and that Bonnie and Clyde’s appeal and plea to the government put them at the forefront of the public, both during the Great Depression and many decades after.

Bonnie and Clyde represented outsiders and also represented what our economic downfalls can do to a person mentally when our basic needs for survival are not met. They revolted strongly, against what they saw as a very uncaring system of government. There was not much evidence suggesting that Bonnie and Clyde's violence was associated with mental health, however, evidence and history have clearly made the claim that because of economic persecution, their actions resulted in an outcry of events.

If Bonnie and Clyde had received better responses from the government, initially, would these events have taken place? Were they real criminals, or just a product of the economic downslide the country experienced, resulting in a variety of mental instabilities, that further shook their decision to respond the way they did? According to Hodgkin and Karpman, “More systematic tracking of mental health spending worldwide will be important in the future to identify problem areas and good ideas for responding to recessions.” This is an important decision because our country may experience more recessions and economic pitfalls, but how we deal with it as a country, how much effort, money and services are put forth to counteract the public outcries, will make all of the difference in whether or not our country sees another Bonnie and Clyde, in reaction to governmental, economic and mental setbacks. (Hodgkin, 2010)

Reference

Hodgkin, D. (2010). Economic crises and public spending on mental health care. International Journal of Mental Health, 39(2), pp. 91-106.