It’s over seven years since the onset of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and we’re beginning to get a clear idea of its impact on mental health and suicide.
In keeping with previous economic recessions, the 2008 financial crisis was followed by rises in suicide deaths in many affected countries. As documented in an article published in the British Medical Journal in 2013, younger men appear to have been particularly badly affected.
Recently published research in the International Journal of Epidemiology has provided new insights into the impact of economic down turns on mental health. Using Ireland’s impressive National Registry of Deliberate Self-Harm and national suicide data, Paul Corcoran and colleagues found that there were increases in suicide and self-harm in men and women in Ireland in the years after recession began. The greatest rises were seen in men. There were an estimated 8,800 excess episodes of self-harm (mainly suicide attempts) and 560 suicide deaths in 2008-12 compared to pre-recession trends. Continue reading “Economic recession, mental health and suicide”→
Joan Benach, Alejandra Vives, Gemma Tarafa, Carlos Delclós and Carles Muntaner
João was 14 when he got his first job at a Brazilian bank. By the time he was 19, he was working part-time as an assistant to the board of directors of a multinational bank while working on a technical degree in foreign trade. He was earning about US$150 a month when he applied for a full-time position in the trade sector, but his application was denied because he was seen as too valuable in the position he held at the time. He then began to work on getting a university degree, but monthly payments cost more than what he was earning per month. When he saw his next transfer application for a different position in the trade sector denied, he left the university and decided to move to Canada. He felt that learning English would be a good way to improve his employment prospects.
Once there, he realised everything was more expensive than he had originally anticipated. Despite having only a tourist visa, João got a series of short-term jobs to support his English training. He worked brief stints as a carpet installer, an office assistant and, finally, as a bricklayer. It was in this final position that he earned CDN$29 an hour, over three times more than the minimum wage he’d earned in his previous jobs. Yet, as an undocumented worker, he was denied political, health and educational rights, and was constantly exposed to abuse by his employers and severe income insecurity. Moreover, the overlong work shifts, the exhausting nature of his tasks and a constant exposure to toxins took a substantial toll on his body.
David Gunnell
IJEblog 