Asked to speak about the mental repercussions the Covid-19 pandemic has left on women, Dimech Sant said that through a series of surveys the foundation has conducted, it was found that women take on more caring and household responsibilities.
“Naturally, when lockdown came into effect, children had online classes and parents had to resort to working from home. However, it was women who were most likely to be taking on home duties,” Dimech Sant said. Women had to find a way to juggle coordinating work as well as household activities, said Dimech Sant, noting that when families had to take a decision on which one of the partners would give up their job and stay home during lockdown, it was often the woman which consequently significantly impacted women’s mental health.
An interesting aspect which Dimech Sant highlighted was that women tended to think beyond just the practical responsibilities, taking into consideration the emotional needs of their loved ones. In fact, it was clear that women predominantly were the ones who took the burden of caring for a dependent relative, seeing to their needs during lockdown, she said.
Related to this research, the mental health helpline of the Richmond Foundation, which has been operating pre-pandemic, then became the national mental health helpline at the beginning of the pandemic, which then offered the call service 24/7, said Dimech Sant. “Through research on who was calling and what kind of calls came through, there was an abundance of calls where women would be asking for information related to the wellbeing of others, apart from their own,” remarked Dimech Sant. She added that this is a clear result of social conditioning of women to fulfil these roles, saying that they are culturally programmed.
Prompted on how there is still an unfair share of household and caring responsibilities between men and women, and if this increased during the pandemic, Dimech Sant pointed out research done by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality. This showed that in the case of parents having to work from home, as well as trying to find a balance for household duties, the responsibility greatly fell on women, also due to the indication that females often received a lower income, making more sense for the female to be the one to step back and take on reduced hours to focus on the home, where necessary.
Asked about the gender pay gap, and if it saw any hinderance to the progress made over the years for the fight to equal pay, Dimech Sant remarked on the complexity of the issue, as it is often related to culture. “Since the past decade, every year there are more female graduates than males, so it is not necessarily the case that women are less educated than men, it is more a matter of culture and what women are expected to do as well as what they expect of themselves,” she said.
A study done by the NCPE on the distribution of work in households showed that women reported longer working hours, both in their employment as well as hours taking care of household responsibilities. Male respondents also recognized this, it reported. The hours for caring for children increased by 13 hours of more for females, and while it did increase for males, it was significantly less for the duration of the pandemic. Dimech Sant commented that this is something which happens consistently and seems to happen by default. She also remarked on the visibility of these duties, whereas if it is visible to put meals on the table, the emotional and the cognitive load, such as planning children’s extracurricular activities, or worrying whether a child is coping, for example, is less visible, and often falls upon women.
Furthermore, aside from household duties, the woman must also keep up with her responsibilities as an employee, Dimech Sant said. She remarked on the importance of establishing a boundary between home and work, where the lines were blurred due to the pandemic. Dimech Sant recommended that these women try their best to discern their work hours and their home hours, in effort to safeguard their mental health.
Restrictive measures during the pandemic required period of lockdown, which brought about great stresses on people who are in abusive relationships, paving an unfortunate way for increased domestic violence cases. Going to work provided an escape for individuals who find themselves these situations, which ‘escape’ was eradicated during lockdown. “During lockdown people were in close proximity and everyone was more stressed as not being able to leave the house, or meet other people is stressful in itself,” Dimech Sant said, adding that even the most harmonious of relationships had their tough patches during the pandemic, let alone abusive ones. Dimech Sant confirmed that there were increased reports of calls for people who were suffering the mental health repercussions of such abusive relationships.
Dimech Sant was asked about how the foundation helped address these calls, to which she said that the helpline is run by professionals. “Firstly, they listen in a non-judgemental manner, giving the person a safe space where to vent and share their feelings for as long as necessary, as well as give them time to calm down if agitated,” she replied. Then, they offer support and an understanding environment while also helping the person to explore ways on how they can support themselves and ways of coping, she said. Thirdly, they are referred to public entities such as NGOs which could offer more support related to a domestic violence incident.
With regards to money, which is deemed as a great stressor on parents, leading to mental health issues, Dimech Sant said that the burden of reduced work hours or no hours at all as a result of lockdown affected parents significantly, especially single mothers.
“The government wage supplement was a great help, but may not have been enough for some families to live on monthly, which was challenging. Not knowing whether you will have enough money to last till the end of the month is especially challenging,” she said, remarking that the stress of the family budget is mostly managed by women.
Asked if there is an adequate support network for these women who are suffering mental health issues, Dimech Sant said that number of NGOs became active to provide support, however commented that national structures may be lacking, and that there should be a social determinacy to reduce mental health issues. She remarked about poverty which is one of the main causes of mental health, and other social disadvantages besides being exposed to genetic disposition
“A good social policy based on looking after and preventing families from having to live in stressful situations is the key to having better mental health for women and therefore healthier families in the future,” said Dimech Sant.
Asked if the foundation has any proposals or suggestions to tackle the issue on a larger scale, Dimech Sand said that the foundation takes on a gender neutral approach where there are no barriers to their services. She also said that the foundation is planning to open a program for rehabilitation of women with mental health conditions. ‘Dar Tereza’ will provide residential rehabilitation for women together with their children, The programme will especially benefit single mothers, or even grandmothers who need help, while they are responsible for their grandchildren.
“This is a project which specifically intends to level out some of this disadvantage for women who have mental health issues, and who also have children,” she said, adding that it would also contribute to strengthening the family unit and giving them certain skills to develop together.
Dimech Sant said that it is important to remind these women that they deserve respect and should not be ashamed, encouraging them to ask for help if needed. “There is a strong educational component – not in the sense of introducing a mental health subject in school, but educating for life,” she said, adding that educating children from an early age on how to respect themselves, speak out, and express their needs would help with mental health issues. She added that learning about family roles, such as in family therapy sessions would lead to better balance sought. Dimech Sant said that courses regarding this aspect also be provided in the future as people are greatly interested in learning about mental health and about taking care of their own mental health.
What will the foundation be doing on International Women’s Day? Dimech Sant said that it will be doing what it does best every day of the year, which is to continue to support women’s struggle with mental health and empower them to believe that they are worthy of support. The foundation wants to continue to convey this message of how people need to respect and value one another to secure better mental health for all.