Women and children most impacted by mental health during pandemic
pharmafile | October 7, 2021 | News story | Business Services |
The Headway 2023 Mental Health Index has revealed that the pandemic has taken a significant toll on the mental health of women and children. 83% of women have reported that the pandemic negatively impacted their mental health compared to 36% of men.
The social isolation of lockdown, in conjunction with numerous other complexities caused by the pandemic, has exacerbated the issue of mental health throughout the UK. This has also disproportionately affected women, both at work and at home, and particularly women from minority ethnic groups.
The Headway 2024 Mental Health Index is an initiative on Mental Health, conceived and launched by The European House – Ambrosetti, a think tank created in partnership with Angelini Pharma. It is designed as a multidisciplinary platform for knowledge-exchange to prevent, diagnose, and find innovative management solutions to reduce the burden of mental health, as well as to reduce the stigma surrounding the issue.
The Index has revealed that mental ill-health affects as much as 20% of the working population at any point in their lives, while 70% of the employed population report mild to moderate forms of mental health problems.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, by May 2020, mothers were 1.5 times more likely than fathers to have either lost their job or quit since March, and were more likely to have been furloughed.
Chief Executive Officer, Angelini Pharma, Pierluigi Antonelli, commented, “The COVID-19 recovery efforts provide a crucial opportunity to improve Europe’s mental health services and policies by putting brain health at the top of the European Public health agenda. The Headway 2023 Mental Health Index offers the first ever comprehensive overview of the state of mental health systems in Europe.
“The report highlights the rate of mental illness among people in working-age and the urgent need also for employers to establish appropriate systems for responding to the mental health needs. It is crucial, while we influence external policies, to remain coherent and act responsibly primarily within our organisations”.
Lina Adams
