Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the association of mental illness with social class contains implications resulting in stigma for the patient, errors in psychiatry approaches, and misinformation about mental health policies. The author points out that the belief that mental illness was associated specifically with the lower social classes and certain ethnicities began in the 19th century; however, today, the conclusion is that mental illness is manifested across all social classes and ethnicities. The paper relates that the fundamental research problem remains that, whatever means are used to measure the association of mental illness with social class are still not standardized. The author states that another problem is that, when social class is linked to mental illness, the real meaning is easily distorted. The paper concludes that the more common mental disorders such as stress are not the result of social class but of social disadvantages.

From the Paper:

"In Song and Biegel's (1997), there is an assumption that the family caregiver of the mentally ill is also likely to have mental illness. The symptoms the caregiver experienced were caused by the care giving burden, the patient's behavior, and lack of social support. However, lower social class and race were presumed to be factors in the appearance of mental illness symptoms. The reason is that caregiver burden differs between the white middle class and lower classes which are not white. The link between care giving and developing symptoms is based in patient impairment and behavior which results in severe caregiver stress."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Fryers, T. & Melzer, D. (2003). Social inequalities and the common mental disorders. Social Psychiatry & Epidemiology, 38, 229-237.
• Manson, S. (2003). Extending the boundaries, bridging the gaps. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 27, 395-408.
• Song, L. & Biegel, D. (1997). Predictors of depressive symptomatology among lower social class caregivers of persons with chronic mental illness. Community Mental Health Journal, 33 (4), 269-287.
• Stewart-Brown, S. & Fletcher, L. (2005). Parent-child relationships and health problems in adulthood in three UK national birth cohort studies. European Journal of Public Health, 15 (6), 640-646.
• Vander Stoep, A. (1998). Social class, ethnicity, and mental illness. American Journal of Public Health, 88 (9), 1396-1403.

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