Investing in Women’s Mental Health
Written on behalf of MotHs by Dr Lisa Dell: A/Prof at the University of Melbourne, Director of Research at Phoenix Australia and MotHs committee member.
Women’s voices need to be heard when it comes to looking after our own mental health and wellbeing..
Stress, a feeling of being overwhelmed or unable to cope with mental or emotional pressures, is the top mental health issue facing women today, with almost 70% of women in Australia experiencing stress. Unsurprising given research showing that women often perform far more cognitive and emotional labour than men. Though many households aim to split roles and responsibilities 50:50, tasks often end up allocated along gendered lines, and even when the division of labour looks roughly equal, a substantial ‘mental load’ is often carried by women. Combine these loads with the pressure of recent local and national events like natural disasters and pandemics, and we find that we are sitting on the precipice of a tipping point for the impact of stress on women’s mental health wellbeing.
The recent Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System resulted in an investment of more than $100 million from our State Government to deliver the Australian-first Specialist Women’s Mental Health Service – with 35 acute mental health beds across Melbourne and Shepparton to support more than 750 Victorian women each year with a range of complex conditions. This was a welcome investment into women’s mental health but we still see a huge gap for women who are experiencing changes and challenges with their mental health but are not at the acute end of the spectrum of need.
We still have a lack of understanding about women’s mental health needs when changes and challenges to our wellbeing first emerge. We have limited evidence about how to respond to poor mental health and how promote good mental health – and in the times that we are currently facing this is critically important. The recent storms and floods in our community, coming on the back of a global pandemic, have highlighted the fact that women’s voices about the support they need have remained relatively unheard and are not effectively incorporated into response and recovery plans. Research has shown that women have a higher vulnerability to the impact of disaster compared to men and as such we need action from our Government to invest in understanding and supporting the unique mental health and wellbeing needs that women have. The Government needs to listen to the women in our community and understand the impacts of these cascading disaster events and they need to take action to ensure that programs and services are adequately tailored to meet the actual need of the community.
MotHs is asking for:
Recognition that women in the community are at risk of mental health problems due to the cascading disasters they are experiencing.
Investment into understanding the impact of these disasters on the emergence of mental health challenges for women.
