Management of Depression through Social Approaches and Community Development

Running head: DEPRESSION
MANAGEMENT OF DEPRESSION THROUGH SOCIAL APPROACHES AND
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
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1DEPRESSION
Title: MANAGEMENT OF DEPRESSION THROUGH SOCIAL APPROACHES AND
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Introduction:
Depression can be defined as the common mental health disorder, which can cause
people to suffer from depressed mood along with complete loss of interest or pleasures, with
feelings of guilt, feelings of low-self worth (Bennion et al. 2017). Depressed individuals are
also seen to suffer from disturbed sleep as well as appetite and even low energy and poor
concentration. Studies are of the opinion that depression is indeed the predominant mental
health issue all over the globe and is then followed by anxiety, bipolar disorders and
schizophrenia. As per the reports in 2013, depression was found to be the second largest
cause of years lived with disability worldwide after low back pain. In about 26 countries, it
was found that depression was primarily the driver of disability. In the year 2014, 19.7% of
the people in the UK aged 16 years and over were found to show symptoms of depression or
anxiety. This noted a 1.5% increase from that of the year of 2013 (Lloyd-Evans et al. 2017).
The percentage of affected individuals in UK was higher among the females accounting for
about 22.5% than that of males accounting for about 16.8%. As per very recent reports in the
year 2017, it has been found that 1 in every 10 people is seen to be affected with depression
during their lifetime in United Kingdom. An interesting data showed that about 3 million
people are found to be suffering from depression in the nation, which exceeds the total
amount of people living in entire Wales. Even 4% of the children in the nation are seen to be
suffering from depression as well as anxiety. It has been found that 50% of the people who
had been suffering from depression in the nation had also experienced relapse (Batterham et
al. 2015). About 6000 suicides had been recorded annually in the nation equal to about one
suicide every 90 minutes. In fact, the number of working days lost due to depression accounts
to 9.8 million days. Hence, this assignment would try to undertake a social approach in

2DEPRESSION
assessing the causes of the development of this disorder. Community development programs
would be also implemented to help the nation fight with this mental health disorder and
thereby develop a fitter nation.
(Bennion et al. 2017)
Impact of the social determinants of health:
Initially the biomedical model of acre used to believe depression is caused mainly by
the imbalance of the neurotransmitters that mainly are chemical substances that help mainly
the different areas of the brain to communicate with each other. Serotonin is the main
chemical which when found in short supply lead to symptoms such as clinical depression.
Such imbalance in the neurotransmitter results in mood regulation. However, researchers in
the present days are of the opinion that occurrence of depression is not simple but it the
outcome of interaction of multiple social and psychological causes. Genetic vulnerability,
substance abuse, severe life stressors, abuse and violence, grief and bereavement and many
others also play an important role in the occurrence of depression (Kingstone et al. 2017).
Therefore, only using anti-depressants for balancing the chemicals in the brain would not
help in complete development and wellbeing of the affected individuals. Present day
healthcare professionals therefore need to develop an approach that not focuses on individual
development but on community development by addressing each of the social causes of
depression successfully to empower the communities.

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One of the social causes of depression is stressful experiences and life stressors like
that occurs in low-income situations, unemployment, financial hardships and others. People
face difficulties in leading better quality lives with restricted resources that upset them and
make them feel lack of self-esteem and confidence (Sandhu and Tomlins 2017). Often these
situations extend to abuses in households, which result in development of depression in
victims. Often perpetrators frustration from financial hardships makes them violent,
aggressive, and such violence of children and family members mainly the spouses to develop
depression. Often substance abuse is also considered to be both the cause and the effect of
depression. Individuals who abuse substances cannot flourish in their lives academically,
professionally, financially and have disrupted personal and romantic lives. All situations
culminate to the development of depression that prevents people to reach their potential.
Again, studies also opine that depression affected individuals tend to take the resort to
substances abuses with the feelings that substances eases their pain and helps them overcome
unpleasant feelings and low moods (Stansfield et al. 2018). However, in both ways
depression are affecting people in the communities making them lose many crucial
opportunities which when succeeded could help in community empowerment.
(Kingstone et al. 2017)