Mental Health, Autism, and Issues of Inequality and Resources

Globally, governments face challenges investing in health, and this is a crucial area for most countries. Despite voiced commitments to supporting health, many healthcare systems across the world are plagued by complex financial difficulties, because of the growth of chronic illnesses, disabilities, and aging populations. There has been a longstanding understanding that growing economies are associated with healthier and longer lives, with economic booms boosting mortality rates and austerity reducing them (Frakt, 2018). Within individual country economies, there can be diversity in health outcomes, and even in affluent societies there is a persistence of health inequalities (Szreter & Woolcock, 2004). Nonetheless, broadly and overall, economic growth in affluent countries has been associated with better nutrition, stronger public health infrastructures, and more effective medical technology; thus, in countries where there is greater wealth, people tend to live longer, and childhood mortality rates are lower than those countries that lack this financial position (Frakt, 2018). Notably, inequalities, resources (economic, social and familial), and provision of services are all important issues when considering autism.