Marginalization and associated concepts and processes in relation to mental health/illness

Within a given society, marginalization involves complex interactions between significant individual vulnerabilities and economic, cultural, political, and social factors (Myhrvold, 2012). Marginalization contributes directly to physical and emotional health inequalities via lifestyle limitations, challenges, and isolation, and indirectly via alienation and disempowerment that results in lower participation rates in available (but not necessarily accessible) mainstream preventative health offerings, treatment for illness, and rehabilitation programs (Alexander, Kinman, Miller, & Patrick, 2003; Koci, McFarlane, Nava, Gilroy, & Maddoux, 2012; Lynam & Cowley, 2007). As such, marginalization contributes doubly to disenfranchisement and poorer health outcomes.