Women hit harder by depression

THE SA Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag) says a second wave of crisis facing the country would be the psychological impact of Covid-19 and women will bear the brunt.

Sadag operations director Cassey Chambers said the volumes of calls doubled during the pandemic and that the majority of the calls were from women.

“Female callers account for about 60%-65% of our calls, many calling for themselves, their children, partners or family members. Depression and anxiety have been main reasons for calls, but the nature of the call has changed as we have moved through the various lockdown stages. At the beginning, female callers were calling in anxious, lonely (for those who were by themselves), family conflict and depressed,” she said. “And as we moved along, some female callers had serious financial issues, worried about how they would feed their families, unemployment, violence and others.”

Chambers said women were exposed to more trauma, and were often victims of abuse by men.

MediSpace Lifestyle Institute chief executive Tshidi Gule said reports had shown that women were bearing the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There is also the uncertainty and mixed research around the risks of Covid-19 while pregnant, as well as the effects the virus has on newborns, toddlers and school-going children. Then of course there is concern around access to maternal health care,” she said.

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr’s national employment director Aadil Patel said: “Of the approximately 3 million people who lost their jobs between February and April due to Covid-19, women accounted for 2 million jobs lost. In addition to taking on more domestic responsibilities at home, contending with economic uncertainty and gender-based violence, anxiety and depression is on the rise for women, more notably in the workplace.”

Patel said employers needed to empower and support women.