Browsing by Author "Puro, Kaisa"

Social exclusion is a process where a certain group of people are faced with several difficulties in multiple areas of life. The most typical definition of social exclusion is not being able to attend the activities which are available and ordinary for most of the community. Social exclusion is related to mental disorders, and the topic of this bachelor thesis is the relationship between social exclusion and mental disorders. The purpose of this paper is to research factors via which mental disorders expose an individual to social exclusion and factors exposing a socially excluded individual to mental disorders. According to research evidence, mental health problems expose an individual to social exclusion by stigma related to mental disorders, and by challenges in social relationships and working ability in particular. The most important factors that expose a socially excluded individual to mental health problems are social difficulties, poverty and unemployment. The consequences can exist over generations. Studies on this topic clearly imply that there is a bidirectional relationship between social exclusion and mental disorders: social exclusion exposes an individual to mental disorders and mental disorders to social exclusion. Variations in definitions causes problems for research since it makes it difficult to compare different studies and create meta-analysis. The two phenomena are also often met together, which makes it difficult to draw conclusions about causality. Especially more longitudinal studies are needed to attain information about the complicated interaction between social exclusion and mental disorders.