Addressing Deep Poverty-Related Stress Across Multiple Levels of Intervention

Poverty is the single largest social determinant of health and a major precipitator of emotional distress and mental illness. Deep poverty, which designates those living in the bottom half of the poverty level, produces disproportionately adverse effects on education, work opportunities, physical and mental health, social support, and overall success and well-being, such that the cycle of deep poverty is frequently perpetuated through intergenerational susceptibility. Because of the highly complex, multifaceted nature of deep poverty, the most optimal way to address deep poverty-related issues is to use an integrated approach acrossmultiple levels of interventions.We provide a review of current deep poverty literature and present evidence-based approaches for clinicians to consider integrating into their practices across psychobehavioral, psychosocial, psychobiological, psycho-environmental, and psycho-societal levels. In addition, given the cyclical relationship between deep poverty and mental health, the benefits of broadening the current diagnostic nomenclature to differentiate between psychological and social situational triggers inmaladaptive functioning are briefly discussed.