Table 2.

Overview of recommendations for action to intervene on social determinants to improve population mental health and reduce inequities in mental health problems

1. Make social justice central to all public mental health interventions. Mental health problems are inequitably distributed between and within populations, principally arising from systemic structural inequalities. Making social justice core to all public mental health interventions and policies would reduce these inequities.

2. Invest in interventions that pay off in multiple domains. Few social determinants solely affect mental health. Investing in interventions that target key social determinants will improve physical, mental and social outcomes for individuals and communities. Intervention programs should routinely measure mental health alongside these other outcomes.

3. Invest in interventions that target critical windows of the life course to interrupt intergenerational transmission of mental health inequalities. Providing good‐quality and accessible parental and familial support early in life can interrupt the intergenerational transmission of mental health inequalities within families or communities.

4. Prioritize interventions that focus on poverty alleviation. Any comprehensive public health approach to reduce the burden of poor mental health must include efforts to reduce poverty. Poverty is inextricably linked to most social determinants of mental health, and could be considered a root cause.

5. Strengthen causal inference in research on social determinants of mental health and primary prevention. Most research on social determinants of mental health is observational, often subject to selection and confounding bias. Stronger causal inference methods are needed, as well as larger, interdisciplinary observational and experimental studies in representative and adequately powered samples to accelerate progress of knowledge and develop effective primary interventions.

6. Establish inclusive longitudinal population mental health monitoring. Many countries struggle to accurately estimate psychiatric morbidity in their populations, which inhibits both clinical and public mental health provision. Samples are often unrepresentative. Reliable, inclusive and precise longitudinal monitoring of population mental health is the essential basis for effective prevention.

7. Ensure parity between primary, secondary and tertiary prevention in mental health. Investing sufficiently in primary prevention to stop the onset of mental disorders prevents suffering, improves quality of life and societal outcomes, and reduces demand for secondary and tertiary prevention.