People with serious mental illness face many barriers over their lifetime, including stigma and discrimination, which may prevent them from securing adequate education and employment. Experiencing a mental illness can seriously interrupt a person’s education or career path and result in diminished opportunities for employment. A lack of secure employment, in turn, affects one’s ability to earn an adequate income. As a result, people may eventually drift into poverty.5
People experience economic hardship as a result of a variety of difficult life situations, such as divorce, a death in the family, loss of job, etc. The resulting loss of income may lead to poverty in other essential resources, such as housing, education, and employment. Evidence indicates that “poverty-and the material and social deprivation associated with it-is a primary cause of poor health among Canadians.”14 As a result, one’s quality of life is compromised, which has an impact on mental health. Depression and anxiety (in particular) often follow this route of stress and strain.15