Equality and inequality in health care: the case of mental health

• Author: Giuseppina Cersosimo
• Position: Associate Professor, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Salerno
• Pages: 85-98

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 8 (57) No. 2 - 2015

EQUALITY AND INEQUALITY IN HEALTH

CARE: THE CASE OF MENTAL HEALTH

Giuseppina CERSOSIMO1

Abstract: This paper is based on the observation that some certainties in

care and rehabilitation of mentally ill people have not been and are not yet

sufficiently guaranteed; furthermore discrimination and inequalities are

generated by a certain kind of science and politics. So we conducted a study

at a Diagnosis and Care Psychiatric Service (DCPS) located in the South of

Italy. We have observed and stated that some inequalities in care are

redressed when dramatic situations must be coped with, so that the more the

situation is dramatic, the more inequalities will be prevented. At the same

time we have observed that in relation to some phenomena and etiologies,

unlike others, inequalities in treatment do persist. Therefore we have worked

out and developed a possible model to redress the imbalance, by drastically

redesigning the agreements among public, private, para-private and social

private services by means of innovative systems targeted to users and their

families, rather than to facilities.

Key words: Mental illness, stigma, marginalization, citizen, family,

resilience.

Although the risks and contradictions of life go

on being as socially produced as ever, the duty

and necessity of coping with them has been

delegated to our individual selves.

(Zygmunt Bauman 2007 p. 14)

1 Associate Professor, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Salerno.

1. Introduction. Some data: numbers,

costs and inequalities in mental diseases

The WHO estimates that the

"Depression" is destined to become the

most frequent cause of illness in 2020; The

European Union, comparing the statistical

data provided by the member countries has

estimated that 27% of the population

suffers from a significant mental disorder

at least once during their lives. Therefore,

according to the WHO are approximately

400 million people currently suffering

from mental disorders, or psychosocial

problems, especially associated with

alcoholism or drug addiction. Depression

is currently the fifth leading cause of death

and disability in the world and, according

to the WHO, the disease could reach

second place by 2020.

The statistics show that women are more

susceptible to depression than men, and on

average, it’s so for one in five women,

compared to one in ten men. Additionally

the depression, which affects 340 million

people worldwide, can make its

appearance several times in the course of a

lifetime. As well as the depression are