Can a sense of community help with mental health?

By Liz Lockhart

Many recent research studies have touched on the subject of how mental health can be affected by environmental and community issues.  Mental Healthy recently reported on one such study which suggested that the better off in society are more distrustful of their neighbours perhaps suggesting a feeling of isolation.

Other studies have looked at how modern technology  effects mental health and communication between families and communities.  The latest study to attempt to shed light on these issues is mentioned in Science Daily and was carried out by the University of Michigan.

The article on this study is entitled ‘Raising a child doesn’t necessarily take a village, study of African villages suggests’.  Whilst this study does not necessarily suggest comparison between life in developed countries with life in an African village it does try to draw some parallels.

In the article a researcher from the University of Michigan, Beverly Strassmann, states ‘In the African villages that I study in Mali, children fare as well in nuclear families as they do in extended families.  There’s a naive belief that villages raise children communally, when in reality children are raised by their own families and their survival depends critically on the survival of their mothers.’

Whilst this study looks at a child’s chances of survival rather than its overall health, both in terms of physical and mental health, it throws some controversial ideas into the picture.  One such finding is that children fare better if their grandparents did not live with them.  This is based on the demand for resources being stretched further by the addition of others in home.  Strassman also says ‘The grandmother hypothesis does not take into account that the grandmothers may need help themselves, not just among the groups like the Dogon but in societies like our own.’ This got me thinking about the value of extended family and the community as a whole on the mental health of a young child.

The need to care for grandparents is a responsibility felt by many families but surely this is part of family life and many lessons can be learnt from it.

I look back to my childhood when, growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s, and feel blessed that I was born in such a gentle period of time. 

We had a close-knit family and a wonderful sense of community.  I remember that as a young girl I would walk alone to the local village to buy groceries for my mother or to attend community groups.  This walk was a long one, around two miles, and although I was only about 5 years old it was a safe journey.  Everyone I passed knew me and my family and I knew them.  Without even realising it they were ‘looking out for me’ and I felt safe.  Of course there were dangers, there always have been and probably always will be, but these dangers were reduced by good community spirit.

We did not have mobile phones it was more like ‘jungle drums’ but it was a time to feel free and all the more beneficial for the lack of modern communication technology. 

We would make regular visits to grandparents and they would visit us.  The things I learned from my grandparents are too many to mention, knitting, cooking and above all I learned what it was to be part of a larger family and to feel loved by the many different branches of my family.

When my grandparents became ill they moved in with us, which, at the time, seemed like a gift rather than a chore.  I learned how to ‘care’ and I learned a sense of responsibility. 

I look at my grandchildren who keep in touch by phone, skype and email with all their various grandparents and I wonder if they will gain as much from us as I gained from my own grandparents.  I hope so and I continue to visit as often as I can.  Many grandparents work full time today and yet looking back they seemed to have all the time in the world.  How things have changed in what feels like a short space of time – is that change for the better?  For the sake of my grandchildren, I hope so.