Welcome to The Gender Agenda column.
On this page, we will hold no bars on discussions as it affects us women, young women, and the men who love us, because there are anti-women men, well not only in the contextual sexual preference debate but in the socio-psychological sense of the conversation.
Well, today I would just want us to have a conversation on mental health as it concerns women because it has been over the years quite generalized and put in the toolbox as an overview rather than a serious conversation.
Gender is a critical determinant of mental health and mental illness. The patterns of psychological distress and psychiatric disorder among women are different from those seen among men. Women have a higher mean level of internalizing disorders while men show a higher mean level of externalizing disorders.
Mental ill-health among women is on the rise. One in five women (19 per cent) experience a Common Mental Disorder such as anxiety or depression, compared with one in eight (12 per cent) men.
Mental health and abuse cannot be far from each other too. There is clear evidence indicating that women’s mental health is linked to their experiences of violence and abuse, either emotionally or physically. For example:
• 53 per cent of women who have mental health problems have experienced abuse.
• More than three-quarters of women (78 per cent) of women who have faced extensive physical and sexual violence – in both childhood and adulthood – have experienced life-threatening trauma, and 16 per cent have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
• Over a third (36 per cent) of women who have faced extensive physical and sexual violence in both childhood and adulthood have attempted suicide, and a fifth (22 per cent) have self-harmed.
Then there is relativity between Mental health and poverty too let’s look at the following research:
• Women in poverty are more likely to face poor mental health, with 29 per cent of women in poverty experiencing a common mental health disorder compared to 16 per cent of women not in poverty.
• Women in poverty who have experienced abuse are even more likely to experience poor mental health
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Women
Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic women face additional inequalities and challenges to their mental health, Mental Disorders:
• 29 per cent Black women, 24 per cent Asian women, and 29 per cent mixed-race women have a common mental disorder, compared to 21 per cent White British women, and 16 per cent White other women
Mental ill-health among young women and girls
Three quarters (75 per cent) of mental health issues are established before the age of 24, and young women have emerged as the highest-risk group for mental ill-health:
• A quarter of young women (25.7 per cent) have self-harmed – more than twice the rate for young men. There is evidence this could be higher and is growing.*
Again, rumbles over electoral bill
• 26 per cent of young women experience a Common Mental Disorder, such as anxiety or depression – almost three times more than young men.
• 1 in 7 young women (16-24) have PTSD (compared with 3.6 per cent of young men).
• There is a higher risk of
•Suicide amongst young women who have mental health challenges.
The need for psychotherapy for women should not only be available in our public health systems but also in our workplaces to reduce the increase in suicide.
The absence of affordable mental health care is an entire issue on its own and is at emergency height.
Reach out to that woman beside you, you may never know what she is going through and counsel is the fastest way to healing, for they say a problem shared is a problem half solved.
