COVID-19 Crisis and Women’s Mental Health Issues

COVID-19 Crisis and Women’s Mental Health Issues
Description: Chair: Manoranjan Mohanty
Speaker I: Aparna Joshi
Speaker II: Cicilia Chettiar
Speaker III: Subhada Maitra
Discussant: Savita Singh
The last session of the 8th edition of Creative theory Colloquium 2021. The Topic was the impact of Covid Crisis on Mental health of women. One of the most important sessions in the series kickstart with the first speaker Ms. Aparna Joshi who took three positions that of an Academician, interventionists through her multilingual iCall Helpline and as a cis Woman to ensure that she efficiently conveyed the gravity of Crisis. To start with, why gender consideration is important in understanding its relation to mental health. Gender determines mental health in three ways, first the kind of stressors individuals face are deeply rooted in their social conditions which are different for men and women. Second, the manifestation of stressors and distress that people experience. Depression, Obsessive compulsive disorders are relatively more found in women than in men. Third, not only the access to help-seeking, services and support systems but also consequences of mental health. By the virtue of women being primary care takers, men diagnosed with mental disorders receive a better support system than women who often bear the consequences of disorders on their own. Women also suffer consequences in different ways including divorce and dissertation. Joshi elaborates further that Gender affects people in two ways- the physical impact of COVID-19 and the Lockdown as a result of COVID-19. The latter has created an altogether different set of Mental health problems. The Pandemic has been claimed as an ‗equalizer‘ which impacted all sections of society but women certainly were affected disparately. With schools being shut down, work restricted to home and the added burden of taking care of the health of the entire family, women had to face a different kind of care-giving burden without any due acknowledgements. Women also lost their jobs and doubly impacted when men lost their jobs too due to the former‘s economic dependence on the latter. Globally as well as nationally the country reported of Domestic violence as the ‗shadow pandemic‘. Looking at the initial figures of the National Commission of Women, they recorded double the number of cases or calls that they could receive in the first month of their helpline functioning. Many of these unique gendered stressors that women were reporting while their cases of abuse kept increasing. Joshi makes an interesting point, that one must consider not only violence but also violation of many of the rights as simple as the right to rest. The Mental health structure in India went through a shell-shock. Additionally , during the second wave of the Pandemic the loss of family members and friends deepened the grief and mental excursion faced not only by women but also others. Many women called for their concerns of society. Mental health services for women are not simply catering to the needs of the women but include legal services, Health care services, domestic violence issues and NGOs. Another interesting point that the speaker makes is on the importance of self care. She says, ―self is the primary instrument of change when it comes to provision of services. She concludes by stating emphatically that COVID 19 Pandemic has aggravated the already poor conditions of the mental health system for women but it can also be used to one‘s benefit as it gives women an opportunity to build their own resource service, one that centre‘s on the self. Ms. Chettiar began by appreciating the work done by Ms. Aparna Joshi and the services provided by I-call. She then moves on to discuss three programs which have found tremendous success during the Pandemic. Centre for Mental Health law and Policy came up with a program named ‗atmiyata‘ not COVID specific but a community based intervention program specifically in the rural areas. The volunteers of this organization have successfully worked with patients suffering from depression and anxiety in the target areas and provide evidence based improvement sessions that also helps in spreading general information on mental health issues dealing through their atmiyata series. The organisation also helped patients take social benefits by referring them to mental health professionals. Atmiyata training sessions or the model was very simple and were adopted by networks already established. There were empirical evidence that suggested the success of this model. The speaker then makes an interesting point by directing the attention of the audience to the important and necessary skills required for helping someone emotionally which includes active listening.
#COVID19, #Colloquium, #MentalHealth
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