Effects of significant mental health problems on individuals and society

What you'll learn

• What psychologists mean by a significant mental health problem.
• How mental health problems can affect an individual’s relationships, daily life and physical wellbeing.
• How individual difficulties can create wider social effects, such as pressure on services and the economy.
• How to apply this topic carefully in exam scenarios without making stigmatising claims.

Starting point: what is a significant mental health problem?

A mental health problem is a difficulty involving a person’s thoughts, feelings or behaviour. It becomes significant when it seriously affects everyday functioning, causes distress, or means the person needs support from other people or services.

This topic is not asking you to diagnose anyone. Instead, you need to explain the possible effects of serious mental health problems on:

• the individual — the person experiencing the problem
• society — other people, services, communities and the economy

A useful way to think about this topic is: private difficulties can create public consequences. For example, if someone cannot cope with work because of severe depression, that affects them personally, but it may also affect their workplace, family income, health services and the wider economy.

Effects on the individual

1. Damage to relationships

A relationship is a connection between people, such as friendships, family relationships, romantic relationships or working relationships.

Significant mental health problems can make relationships more difficult. For example, a person may withdraw from friends, become irritable, struggle to communicate, or feel ashamed and avoid others. Other people may not understand what is happening, which can lead to arguments, isolation or loss of support.

This can create a difficult cycle: the person’s mental health problem damages relationships, and the loss of supportive relationships may then make the mental health problem worse.

2. Difficulties coping with day-to-day life

Day-to-day life means ordinary activities such as getting up, eating regularly, going to school or work, keeping appointments, managing money, travelling, and looking after personal hygiene.

A significant mental health problem can make these tasks feel overwhelming. For example:

• depression may reduce motivation and energy
• anxiety may make leaving the house or speaking to people very difficult
• addiction may disrupt routines, sleep and responsibilities

This matters because GCSE exam questions may give you a short scenario and ask you to identify how the person is affected. You need to link the behaviour in the scenario to a clear effect.

3. Negative impact on physical wellbeing

Physical wellbeing means the health and functioning of the body. Mental health and physical health are closely connected.

A significant mental health problem may affect physical wellbeing because the person might:

• sleep too much or too little
• eat too much or too little
• neglect exercise, hygiene or medical appointments
• experience stress-related symptoms such as headaches or stomach aches
• use alcohol, drugs or other risky behaviours to cope

This does not mean the mental health problem is “not real” or “just physical”. It means psychological difficulties can affect the body as well as the mind.

Effects on society

A social effect is an impact on wider groups, organisations or systems. This could include families, schools, workplaces, health services, social care, the criminal justice system or the economy.

1. Need for more social care

Social care means practical support for people who need help to live safely and manage daily life. This may include support workers, housing support, community care, crisis teams, or help for families and carers.

If many people experience significant mental health problems, society may need more services to support them. This can put pressure on:

• local councils
• NHS mental health services
• charities
• schools and colleges
• families and unpaid carers

More social care can be positive because it helps people stay safe and recover. However, it also requires funding, trained staff and long-term planning.

2. Increased crime rates

The specification includes increased crime rates as a possible social effect. You must handle this point carefully.

Some significant mental health problems may be linked to crime in certain circumstances. For example, addiction may increase the risk of stealing to obtain money for substances, or untreated severe distress may lead to public disorder. Mental health problems may also be linked with homelessness, poverty or lack of support, which can increase contact with the criminal justice system.

However, it is very important not to suggest that people with mental health problems are usually dangerous or criminal. Many people with mental health problems never commit crimes, and people with mental health problems are often more likely to be vulnerable or victims of crime.

3. Implications for the economy

The economy means the system involving money, work, production, spending and services in a country or community.

Significant mental health problems can affect the economy in several ways:

• people may need time off work
• some people may be unable to work for long periods
• employers may lose productivity
• the NHS and social care services may need more funding
• families may lose income if someone becomes a carer
• benefits or financial support may be needed

This is not about blaming individuals. It is about recognising that mental health problems can have costs beyond the person experiencing them.

How individual and social effects link together

Individual and social effects often interact. A problem may begin as an individual difficulty, but if many people experience similar difficulties, the effects become social.

For example, one person struggling to attend work is an individual effect. If many people are absent from work due to significant mental health problems, this becomes an economic issue because workplaces lose productivity and public services may need to provide support.

This “ripple effect” is useful for exam answers because it helps you develop a point. Instead of writing one short sentence, you can explain how one effect leads to another.

For example:

• depression may reduce motivation
• reduced motivation may make school or work harder
• this may reduce achievement or income
• support services may become involved
• this creates wider social and economic effects

Using evidence and data carefully

In this topic, you may be given information in a short passage, table or graph. At GCSE, you do not need inferential statistics. You may need to read values, describe patterns, calculate simple percentages, or compare groups.

For example, if a question says that 12 out of 40 people using a support service needed help with housing, you could turn that into a percentage:

$$\frac{12}{40}\times 100=30\%$$

That would support the point that significant mental health problems can increase the need for social care.

AO3: evaluating claims about effects

For AO3, you need to go beyond describing effects. You should think about how strong, fair and accurate a claim is.

Effects vary between individuals

Not everyone experiences the same effects. Two people may have the same diagnosis but very different levels of support, coping skills, symptoms and outcomes.

This means you should avoid deterministic language. Deterministic means suggesting that one outcome definitely must happen. It is better to write “may lead to” or “can increase the risk of” than “will always cause”.

Cause and effect can be difficult to prove

If people with significant mental health problems are more likely to be unemployed, this does not automatically prove that the mental health problem caused unemployment. Other factors could be involved, such as poverty, discrimination, physical illness, education, family support or local job opportunities.

This matters because many findings in psychology are correlational. A correlation is a relationship between two variables, but it does not prove that one variable caused the other.

Stigma can make effects worse

Stigma means negative attitudes or unfair treatment towards a group of people. If society stereotypes people with mental health problems, individuals may feel ashamed and avoid seeking help.

This can worsen individual effects because the person may become more isolated. It can also worsen social effects because untreated problems may place greater pressure on services later.

Pulling it together for exam answers

A strong answer usually does three things:

1. Names the effect clearly.
2. Explains how it affects the individual or society.
3. Applies it to the scenario using details from the question.

For example, if a scenario says someone has lost contact with friends and stopped attending work, you could write:

• Losing contact with friends shows damage to relationships, an individual effect.
• Stopping attendance at work shows difficulty coping with day-to-day life.
• If this leads to long-term absence or loss of productivity, it may also have economic implications, which is a social effect.