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Housing + Mental Health

Mann in einem Asylantenwohnheim © Pary El Qalqli - Bayrischer Flüchlingsrat

Health, as defined by the WHO, is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. According to the UN declaration of human rights it is a fundamental right. This concept of health is composed of physical and mental, individual and social abilities of man. Thus, what is meant by mental health? Physical or mental health can be defined by the capabilities and skills enabling oneself to obtain a state of well-being and carry out one's full intellectual and emotional potential.

Healthy people aspire to make their homes convenient. However, well-being is hardly achievable in squalid housing conditions or being homeless. Such unalterable settings can favour mental disorders. This context has been shown by the WHO large analysis and review of European housing and health status (LARES) study. People with mental disorder feel, think and behave distinctly different compared to most people. There are severely limited means to control it deliberately and the disease impairs whole life including career and family.

People living in dwellings with inadequate shelter against threats like noise, cold or vandalism and crime are significantly more often suffering from depression and anxiety disorders. This is also true for substandard accommodations with insufficient daylight, hardly any view from the windows and not enough green spaces. In addition the association between the risk of depression and residence in a damp and mouldy dwelling has been evaluated using survey data from eight European cities (Reference: Dampness and Mould in the Home and Depression).

There are various publications describing the need of each and every individual for the opportunity to be himself or herself at home. Scarcely defined limits of intimacy, of what is private and what is public, facilitating intrusion from outside as well as overcrowding decrease the sense of identity, social bonds and security. Anxiety and uncertainty indicate an affected psychical constitution interfering with quality of life and general well-being. Finally, this may give rise to anxiety states, depression, insomnia, paranoid disorders and disorders of social behaviour.

Research has shown associations between the sense of security or rather the fear of harassment and crime and the general health status. However, judging causation of mental disorders by individual housing settings or deficient infrastructure means to cope with difficulties. Inadequate housing conditions are most often related to a low income status and is typical for deprived neighbourhoods (Reference: Poverty and Life Condition). Once stigmatized, the residential districts are at the risk of ghettoisation, deteriorating in a vicious circle. Affected regions are populous, highly condensed residential quarters characterized by obvious deficiencies: Structural defects, environmental pollution, sparsely pleasing surroundings, diminished job offer, missing neighbourhood relations as well as shortcomings of social and cultural facilities.

Numerous studies verify that affiliation to a certain class of society determines the health prospects for a whole life (Reference: Health Inequalities in Germany). Accordingly, it is difficult to analyse the reasons for mental diseases in a patients environment separately from each other. In fact the external circumstances act synergistically.

The nationwide programme "Residential City Districts in Deprived Areas-Social City" has been brought into being by the Federal Republic and the Federal States to counteract this fatal context and prevent social polarisation. It aims to integrate immigrants, families at low income and the solitary elderly. And it aims to strengthen the identification of the residents with their district. Mixed housing projects linking independently financed flats, condos and subsidized dwellings as well as projects designed for families and the elderly contribute to alleviate conflicts in affected districts and to strengthen neighbourhood relations.

The top priority of this assignment is emphasised by the fact that anxiety and depression are the most common mental disorders. In Europe an average of 4,5 percent of the population suffered from depression in 2006. Mental diseases can entail suicide or attempted suicide. To date in Europe about 58, 000 residents in total commit suicide a year, overtaking traffic accidents which cause 50, 700 deaths annually. Mental disorders, mostly depressions, precede suicide in 90 percent of the cases.