Right.
What I would say to that is that people with mental illnesses are in a situation where they are persons with a type of disability who are not dying, and they often do not have access to the supports they require as far as mental health goes.
I look at the population I serve. I serve people with an intellectual disability, 40% of whom have a co-occurring mental health issue, mental illness, etc. Even if they could access specialist services, very often those specialists are not trained to deal with people who have an intellectual disability or autism, and a mental illness, so they are not getting the support and treatment they require to live a good life. I would say the social determinants apply.
If you layer on the situation they're in, poverty.... When you can't pay for mental health services, when you can't pay for counselling and when you can't pay for psychiatry that isn't provided through your health care system, then you are multiply disadvantaged.
I would say that the social determinants apply just as much, if not more, to people with a mental illness as they do to people with physical disabilities.