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	Useful reading Lynne Friedli's WHO Report on Mental Health, Resilience and Inequalities is a useful and very informative drawing-together of the evidence for the socio-psychological damage done by material inequality. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett's book The Spirit Level continues to make an impact. It was featured in The Guardian in March '09 (see also Paul Moloney's review here). The Equality Trust, founded on the book, has a website that is well worth a visit. The Marmot review of health inequalities in England was published on 11.2.10. Yet again the relation between relative poverty and ill health is spelt out unequivocally. The key messages of the review were:-


			1 Reducing health inequalities is a matter of fairness and social justice. In England, the many people who are currently dying prematurely each year as a result of health inequalities would otherwise have enjoyed, in total, between 1.3 and 2.5 million extra years of life. 2 There is a social gradient in health – the lower a person’s social position, the worse his or her health. Action should focus on reducing the gradient in health. 3 Health inequalities result from social inequalities. Action on health inequalities requires action across all the social determinants of health. 4 Focusing solely on the most disadvantaged will not reduce health inequalities sufficiently. To reduce the steepness of the social gradient in health, actions must be universal, but with a scale and intensity that is proportionate to the level of disadvantage. We call this proportionate universalism. 5 Action taken to reduce health inequalities will benefit society in many ways. It will have economic benefits in reducing losses from illness associated with health inequalities. These currently account for productivity losses, reduced tax revenue, higher welfare payments and increased treatment costs.	6 Economic growth is not the most important measure of our country’s success. The fair distribution of health, well-being and sustainability are important social goals. Tackling social inequalities in health and tackling climate change must go together. 7 Reducing health inequalities will require action on six policy objectives: — Give every child the best start in life — Enable all children young people and adults to maximise their capabilities and have control over their lives — Create fair employment and good work for all — Ensure healthy standard of living for all — Create and develop healthy and sustainable places and communities — Strengthen the role and impact of ill health prevention 8 Delivering these policy objectives will require action by central and local government, the NHS, the third and private sectors and community groups. National policies will not work without effective local delivery systems focused on health equity in all policies. 9 Effective local delivery requires effective participatory decision-making at local level. This can only happen by empowering individuals and local communities.
		Keep abreast of the excellent work and subsequent reports of the Marmot Review group at the Fair Society, Healthy Lives website Click here for a cautionary tale of the extent to which Business Philistinism has penetrated higher education. Similar articles can be accessed here and here. An excellent article in the Guardian by Stuart Hall may help free your mind from the poisonous neoconservative claptrap that seems otherwise so inescapable these days. More Guardian articles Forget Mars and Venus – there is no great sex difference \| Ally Fogg http://gu.com/p/32peh Let there be justice for those who have died in police custody \| Nina Power http://gu.com/p/33xk2 I blame the media for ignoring feminism in favour of makeup \| Tanya Gold http://gu.com/p/33xv6 Occupy London is a nursery for the mind \| Madeleine Bunting http://gu.com/p/3324f The curse of the Halloween baby: women avoid giving birth on 'evil day' http://gu.com/p/332kn Met police using surveillance system to monitor mobile phones http://gu.com/p/3327k Governments turn to hacking techniques for surveillance of citizens http://gu.com/p/33357 Women's equality: clock is turning back as cuts bite, says Fawcett Society http://gu.com/p/335fh What eight years of writing the Bad Science column have taught me \| Ben Goldacre http://gu.com/p/336bv Police send warning letters to activists ahead of student protests http://gu.com/p/33862 The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen \| George Monbiot http://gu.com/p/337tn Occupy and anarchism's gift of democracy \| David Graeber http://gu.com/p/33cmm Occupy Wall Street: you can't evict an idea whose time has come \| JM Smucker, Rebecca Manski, Karanja Gaçuça, Linnea M Palmer Paton, Kanene Holder, William Jesse http://gu.com/p/33ckd Youth unemployment: aspirational talk? All the young hear is a sick joke \| John Harris http://gu.com/p/33f68 Mocking International Men's Day only proves it's needed \| Ally Fogg http://gu.com/p/33fcz It's not just our leaders who are in a crisis. Democracy itself is failing \| Peter Beaumont http://gu.com/p/33fyq dd as it may seem, 2011 is proving to be a year of rebirth \| Henry Porter http://gu.com/p/33fmt Activists must challenge revisionist narratives of protest\| Michael Chessum http://gu.com/p/33fcf A historical precedent that might prove a bonus for Occupy Wall Street \| Nicolaus Mills http://gu.com/p/33fjp Stop targeting this imaginary army of long-term sick \| John Harris http://gu.com/p/33gce For corporate welfare queens and their crystal baths, there is no benefit cap \| George Monbiot http://gu.com/p/33gmm Why I will be a striking teacher on 30 November \| Caroline Ryder http://gu.com/p/33g7f We can't afford the costs of bosses' crazy unearned pay \| Deborah Hargreaves http://gu.com/p/33ghz Occupy has the power to effect change \| Peter Hallward http://gu.com/p/33gt2 Why one in four women is on psych meds \| Victoria Bekiempis http://gu.com/p/33gy8 UK incomes fall 3.5% in real terms, ONS reveals http://gu.com/p/33hz2 It is time to mind the gap (again) http://gu.com/p/33th4 Frank Miller and the rise of cryptofascist Hollywood http://gu.com/p/33t77 The culture of masculinity costs all too much to ignore \| Cynthia Cockburn and Ann Oakley http://gu.com/p/33j5a The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy \| Naomi Wolf http://gu.com/p/33thv Wednesday's strike is just the start \| Len McCluskey http://gu.com/p/33kbk Five reasons public service workers are right to strike \| Seumas Milne http://gu.com/p/33yva 'My tram experience' is shocking – but should it be cause for arrest? \| Sunny Hundal http://gu.com/p/33ycf George Osborne's every blow falls on those with less not more \| Polly Toynbee http://gu.com/p/33m54 Anders Breivik's hatred does not come from a delusional mind \| Aslak Sira Myhre http://gu.com/p/33mfk This strike could start to turn the tide of a generation \| Seumas Milne http://gu.com/p/33n2h If the summer rioters really were all criminals, why don't they rampage more often – and why did they stop? \| Suzanne Moore http://gu.com/p/33mqd Moral panic? No. We are resisting the pornification of women \| Gail Dines and Julia Long http://gu.com/p/33nhx Can we take happy Britons at face value? \| Richard Wilkinson http://gu.com/p/33nz9 Social networking can lighten the darkness of depression \| Emily Band http://gu.com/p/33mn4 Articles from the New York Review of Books The Illusions of Psychiatry The Epidemic of Mental Illness 'The Illusions of Psychiatry': An Exchange Reviews Paul Moloney reviews Ian Parker's Revolution in Psychology: from alienation to emancipation David Smail reviews William Epstein's Psychotherapy as Religion David Smail reviews Against and For CBT in Times Higher Education Paul Moloney reviews The Spirit Level Resources Having introduced it at our 2008 conference, we will maintain and from time to time update a resource list. Contributions and suggestions are welcome.

For the most succinct analysis so far of the world economic crisis, click here


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