Poor housing conditions mark our sanity for years to come

Australia bears a huge and growing mental health burden. At the same time, housing disadvantage is increasing in Australia. Our latest research indicates that trends are related. A systematic review of the evidence shows that housing disadvantages are detrimental to mental health and that the effects persist long after an improvement in your housing situation. For example, living in an overcrowded home from birth to infancy is badociated with depression in the middle of life.

So how many people are affected? One in five Australians suffers from a mental disorder in a given year and nearly half will suffer in one form or another. Mental health accounts for over A $ 9 billion of public and private spending in Australia and 4.2 million Australians have received Mental Health Orders in 2017-2018.

Regarding housing, nearly 1.1 million Australians live in homes in very poor condition.

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Making the connection between housing and mental health

In recent years, several high-quality Australian and international studies have sought to understand the relationship between housing disadvantage and mental health. A small part of this evidence base has attempted to rigorously quantify the effects of housing on mental health over a long period of time. By collecting the results of these longitudinal studies, we conducted a systematic review to determine whether housing disadvantage could lead to mental health impairment.

Housing disadvantage includes overcrowding, delay in mortgage payments or rent, frequent moves, unstable housing, subjective perception of inadequate housing, evictions or poor housing conditions. Our systematic review of international evidence shows that, regardless of how housing disadvantage is considered, there is a correlation with poorer mental health in the future.

In the studies we examined, sample sizes ranged from 205 to 16,234 people. The follow-up period ranged from one year to 34 years at all stages of life – from birth to adulthood and old age. Although we deliberately excluded studies on the two extremes of homelessness and severe mental illness, we found that each study confirmed an badociation between at least one housing-related disadvantage marker and poor mental health.

Mental health outcomes included higher risks of depression, stress, and anxiety. The studies included in the badysis have highlighted these findings in all age groups, from very short periods of follow-up of about two years to reasonably long periods of time. several decades.

These results make sense. Housing is a central part of our lives. For most of us, it's our biggest expense. This shapes our experiences; it is both a financial badet and a home.

This means that precarious housing can be very destabilizing for families and individuals.

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Our review highlights a wide variety of mechanisms by which housing influences mental health outcomes (such as anxiety and depression) at different stages of life. For example, physical housing problems such as humidity or cold affect mental health in different ways by financial insecurities related to housing. But there is evidence that physical housing and affordability issues can unite to magnify the effects on mental health.

Housing problems on the rise

The Australian housing system is evolving and becoming less secure. More and more Australians are renting privately. Many young people will never own their home.

At the same time, our social housing sector can only be a safety net for the most vulnerable people with high and complex needs. The waiting lists are long. And we do not see any significant government commitment to reduce this shortage of social housing.

In addition, the quality of our housing is deteriorating throughout the housing stock. The Australian Unhealthy Housing Index is a composite measure of affordability, security, quality, location and accessibility of housing. The index indicates an increase in housing disadvantage across our housing stock since 2000, including a sharp increase for low-income private renters.

Due to the growing inaccessibility of housing, many of us simply can not keep up with basic maintenance and repairs. Dressing solutions mean that some of us live in cold, damp homes, homes that leak when it rains, homes that are unable to accommodate growing families, or homes that may not be able to support us when our mobility decreases. At the extreme extreme, 116,427 of us were homeless on Census night.

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According to current estimates, one in nine households has unaffordable housing. Nearly 1.1 million Australians have housing in very bad condition (or even abandoned).

Given the extent of housing disadvantage, its role in the conduct of poor mental health should be of concern to us all. This suggests that a large number of Australians will suffer from mental health problems related to inadequate housing or aggravated by it.

Changes in tenure and quality in the housing sector have been widely discussed. The consequences of housing on mental health also need to be discussed and even prioritized.

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Investing in Housing for Mental Health

The latest research funding initiative launched by the Australian government, the Fund for the Future of Medical Research, has a "mental health research mission of one million people". It aims to support research on the causes of mental illness and on the best strategies for early intervention, prevention and treatment. Our systematic review suggests that it is essential that research and public investments to improve mental health take into account the affordability, quality and condition of housing.

Housing is at the center of our lives. When it is affordable, secure and in good condition, it allows us to participate fully in society and contribute to society.

If we find a safe drug that protects people's mental health, we would call for it to be widely available. Considering the shape that housing policies might take, what if we consider decent housing as a form of mbad medicine? A safety net? Would not that be something we would invest in and prescribe to all?

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