Happiness and Misery – a Recent UN Report – The Black Dog and Steemit.com

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Several days ago I received a message from one of my good steeemmates, @barrydutton. Barry is a salt of the earth kind of bloke. He found out that one of our finest fellow steemians was in a bit of strife.

Barry, himself, was badly run over about a year ago and should be wallowing in compensation but the authorities and insurance company have so mishandled the case that he is worse than in limbo. Regardless, Barry sought to come to the aid of a fellow steemian.

The Black Dog – to some a Labrador, to others it is an all-consuming unwelcome presence which the fortunate majority often find difficult to engage with.

Rather than give you my lay explanation of mental health issues, a recent UN Report into World Happiness included this in its introduction:

“Nowhere [in the world] is physical illness a bigger source of misery than mental illness.”

Source: NEA Today

Happiness
For interest’s sake the happiest countries in the world are:
1. Norway
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Switzerland

⌘

The Misery side of things merits further investigation.

There are four countries which were investigated further: USA, Australia, Britain and Indonesia.

The sources of data are as follows:
USA: Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (sample aged 25+)
Australia: Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA)(Sample aged 25+)

Britain: British Cohort Study (BCS) (surveyed at ages 34 and 42)
& British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) (sample aged 25+)
Indonesia: Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) (sample aged 25+)

There is then an estimate an equation of the form through determining a risk factor of being categorised as miserable if found to be in one of these categories: Poor, Uneducated, Unemployed, No Partner, Physically Ill, Mentally Ill.

The table below shows the percentage chance of being miserable if in one of the determining categories. This shows that in the USA, for example, a person who is poor is 5.5 percentage points more likely than otherwise to be miserable. By contrast someone with depression or anxiety is 10.7 percentage points more likely to be miserable.

Source: UN World Happiness Report 2016

These metrics might appear to be rather dull. They do, however, point to the allocation of Public Spending. Every Government Department in the World wants more Budget Allocation; how to spend wisely is the name of the game.

So how much could we reduce the prevalence of misery in the USA if we could miraculously abolish depression and anxiety disorders without changing anything else?

Well, around 22% of the population has this diagnosis. If they were all cured, we could reduce the percentage of the population in misery by 0.107 times 22%. This is 2.35% of the whole population. That is large portion of the total 5.6% who are in misery.

In Britain the role of poverty is less than it is in the USA, but the role of mental health as large or larger.

To the Allocation of Public Spending.

Average cost of reducing the numbers in misery, by one person in Britain.
Source: UN Happiness Report

In Britain, the most prevalent issue facing General Practitioners is mental health. The studies of the UN Report would suggest that each of the four countries studied experience similar findings.

Quite clearly, prevention is better than cure, in every aspect. For a happier country, resolve the mental health issues. Go a step further and treat the cause, as well as the symptoms.

For a creative approach, why not ask those recovered mental health patients to get involved with the solution.

A question for all steemians, how well do you know your fellow steemians? What do you do when someone disappears off the radar? Do you know how to contact those people other than a message beneath a post? Does it and/or should it matter?

Barry Dutton thought so because, though we know him as @barrydutton here, he is a member of the community with a big heart, bigger than his own current incapacity.

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