Precarity and mental health: What role can mutual aid play in mitigating social determinants of health in left-behind communities?

Living in a precarious financial situation is associated with poor outcomes in mental and physical health (Marmot et al. 2010; Marmot 2022). Our age of crisis, including the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/08, subsequent austerity policies, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, international conflict and the cost-of-living crisis, has radically exacerbated precarity and inequality (Marmot et al. 2020). A growing body of evidence supports a link between poor mental health and impacts of austerity (Mattheys et al., 2017); with professionals seeking to mitigate this effect looking towards community level means (Izlar, 2019; Malloch, 2021). In broad terms, mutual aid in a community setting includes support groups, networks and cooperatives; by offering a voluntary and complementary exchange of support, resources and/or services ( Shepard, 2014; Izlar, 2019).