Structural Violence and the Social Determinants of Mental Health
Exploring the Experiences of Participants on the Ontario Basic Income Pilot in Ontario, Canada
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6426997 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tracy A Smith-Carrier (0000-0002-5806-8943, Royal Roads University, corresponding author), Elaine Power (0000-0002-4528-3054, Queen's University) |
| Editors | Kathiravan Srinivasan (0000-0002-9352-0237) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 2025 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Health & Social Care in the Community (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0966-0410 • E-ISSN: 1365-2524 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1155/hsc/7816069 |
| OpenAlex | W4406023970 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 49 |
Introduction: In 2017, a provincial Liberal government launched the Ontario Basic Income Pilot (OBIP) to assess a promising approach to poverty reduction in Ontario, Canada. It was prematurely canceled by a subsequent Conservative government, despite election promises assuring that it would continue. The cancelation affected 4000 OBIP recipients. Objective: This study explored how participants’ lives were on the OBIP compared to their lives before and after the pilot project using the social determinants of mental health (SDoMH) as a key lens. Study Design and Data Collection: Semistructured interview data, gathered in 2019, were collected from a sample of 46 OBIP participants from three study sites, viewed through the lenses of structural violence and the SDoMH, and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings: We identified eight themes from the data, all of which pointed to the positive impacts of the OBIP on the SDoMH of participants. These included expanded opportunities for education and employment, improved housing stability, enhanced social inclusion (including an escape from the denigrations of receiving charity), improved sense of security and mental health, the wherewithal to eschew “crappy foods” in favor of healthier options, and the freedom to live one’s life as one chooses. All these positive impacts were threatened or reversed by the Pilot’s cancelation. Conclusions and Implications: The discontinuation of the OBIP, a benefit that appeared to be improving the mental health and well‐being of OBIP participants, can be viewed as an act of structural violence by government leaders. This study contributes to the growing evidence showing that cash transfer programs, such as a basic income, can alleviate psychological distress and improve mental well‐being for people living in poverty. A groundswell of mobilized citizens, and public health and mental health practitioners specifically, must hold governments accountable for acts of structural violence that can readily be addressed through policies that eradicate poverty
Mental health · Political science · Psychiatry · Structural violence · Employment and Welfare Studies · Homelessness and Social Issues · Medicine · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology · Gerontology
What We Mean by Social Determinants of Health
The social determinants of mental health and disorder
Social Determinants of Mental Health
Social determinants of mental disorders and the Sustainable Development Goals
The co-dependency concept
The Psychiatrization of Poverty
Poverty, depression, and anxiety
Social justice, epidemiology and health inequalities
The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development
The impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries
A worked example of Braun and Clarke’s approach to reflexive thematic analysis
Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis
Conceptualising public mental health
The WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health
Epistemological barriers to addressing the social determinants of health among public health professionals in Ontario, Canada
Concepts, disciplines and politics
Disciplinary differences in the study of the relationship between social variables and mental health
The reemergence of Engels’ concept of social murder in response to growing social and health inequalities
One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis
Debunking Myths about Poverty
Human Again”
Rituals of Degradation
How does income affect mental health and health behaviours? A quasi-experimental study of the earned income tax credit
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Deservingness versus values in public opinion on welfare
The Deservingness Heuristic and the Politics of Health Care
Charity Isn’t Just, or Always Charitable
Welfare Law, Welfare Fraud, and the Moral Regulation of the 'Never Deserving' Poor
Worlding austerity
"Rethinking "Structural Violence
Qualitative Quality
Desperately seeking reductions in health inequalities in Canada
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |