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Harm Reduction Resources
Social Determinants of Health
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.
SDOH can be grouped into 5 domains:
Economic Stability
Education Access and Quality
Healthcare Access and Quality
Neighborhood and Built Environment
Social and Community Context
Social determinants of health (SDOH) have a major impact on people’s health, well-being, and quality of life. Examples of SDOH include:
Safe housing, transportation, and neighborhoods
Racism, discrimination, and violence
Education, job opportunities, and income
Access to nutritious foods and physical activity opportunities
Polluted air and water
Language and literacy skills
SDOH also contributes to wide health disparities and inequities. For example, people who don't have access to grocery stores with healthy foods are less likely to have good nutrition. That raises their risk of health conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and obesity — and even lowers life expectancy relative to people who do have access to healthy foods.
Read more about Social Determinants of Health HERE
Social Determinants of Health Influence Mental Health
Evidence supporting the influence of health and mental health determinants beyond genes and biology has grown over time. Seminal research looking at SDOH in the United Kingdom began in the late 1960’s. Known as the Whitehall study, the longitudinal research found that high socioeconomic status correlated directly with better health, and lower socioeconomic status predicted poorer health. An extensive body of literature replicating and expanding on this research has been published in the decades since. More recently, research has also focused specifically on social determinants of mental health.
Low household income, low educational attainment, material disadvantage, unemployment and social isolation are among the biggest factors associated with poor mental health. For example, youth from homes with low socioeconomic status are twice as likely to experience depression or anxiety as those from homes of higher status.
Populations that experience stigma and/or discrimination because of race, class, gender or other identity factors experience higher rates of illness and mental illness than populations not similarly marginalized.
Communities living with poverty, urban crowding, poor access to healthcare or low education are associated with higher rates of trauma exposure, which in turn increases the risk of mental illness, substance use disorders and criminal and juvenile justice involvement.
Pinals, D. A., Fuller, D. A., & Pinals, M. J. (2021, December). Social Determinants of Health and Mental Health. National Center for State Courts. https://www.ncsc.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0025/70864/Social-Determinants-of-Health.pdf
Action in Your Community
Boulder County has recently founded a team to address the disparities regarding social determinants of health and its contribution to mental health. Boulder County Community Services now has a resource navigation team that works with Boulder County residents with mental and behavioral health needs to access the resources that they need, such as finding a therapist, substance use treatment, housing, food, legal, or other supportive resources.
This team is also able to provide navigation services in Spanish in order to better serve the Boulder County community.
If you are interested in connecting with a Boulder County Resource Navigator, please discuss connecting with Whole Connection’s Care Coordinator with your therapist or through our main intake HERE.
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