Mental health crisis

Clothes vendor Gem Watson is feeling the effects of a costly toxic mixture of business and relationship. However, customers who patronise her shop in downtown Kingston would never guess it, judging by her “roughneck yet inviting” persona. Only close friends and God, to whom she goes with tears, know her pain.

A crumbling relationship with her boyfriend and business partner ended in the thick of COVID-19 lockdowns last year.

While the break-up itself has been depressing, Watson said it pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from business investments the couple accrued. It is money she now struggles to pay back each month alone.

At any time she could go bankrupt, and Watson worries constantly, much like all of the 1,186 female respondents in a recent cross-sectional quantitative study by the Northern Caribbean University (NCU), on ‘The Prevalence of Depression in Jamaican women: Post-COVID-19’.

The study indicated that all Jamaican women ages 18 years and older suffer from some degree of depression.

“Furthermore, 22.8 per cent of Jamaican women were classified as having severe depression, and 0.4 per cent suffered very severe depression, with the majority being mildly depressed (68.9 per cent),” it said.

The study employed the Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), which is a 10-point questionnaire widely used by psychiatrists to measure the severity of depressive episodes in patients with mood disorders.

‘COVID REALLY DID ME BAD’

In comparison to Jamaican females, 52.7 per cent of Jamaican men experience some level of depression post-COVID-19, figures which the researchers said align with global trends for depression in men and women.

However, the researchers say although all women suffer from some form of depression, compared to approximately 50 per cent of men, the males were seven times more likely to have suicidal tendencies.

“COVID really did me bad. Most of the time, the shop was locked. Only on weekends I tried to come. And even so, I still did have to find my rent, and the deal was for him to deal with certain things,” relayed the mother of two, adding that rent is $20,000, and that she was almost evicted when outstanding bills surpassed $200,000.

“I come to work out here and I put on a strong face, ‘cause this is downtown. You have to do that. But I just recently paid up the rent; and on top of that, I have about four loans paying back. I can’t even tell you how I feel sometimes,” Watson shared with The Sunday Gleaner, her eyes a well of tears before it broke inside her shop last Thursday.

“This year hasn’t been so good, except for in the back-to-school the other day, but I’m hoping things pick up for Christmas,” she said, wiping the tears running down her cheeks.

Outside on West Street, Denise, a struggling mother of five selling plastic cups and plates, relayed her ordeal, having to fend for her children while living in one of the grittiest communities in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

“I have five kids: [ages] 17, 14, nine, three, and nine months. Only three of their fathers support them. So I have to sell to take care of them. I sell juice and other things at the yard, but during the day, I sell on the road downtown,” she explained on Thursday.

“Is Christmas now so nothing is really happening for the juice. So that is why I came out here. Sometimes it is really hard, but I always try to find little food for them (children). If it is even little mackerel and rice, I finish selling and go home to cook for them,” she related.

MAIN FACTORS

According to the NCU study, education, employment and relationship status play into the depression experienced by Jamaican females. Increased workload, economic hardship, social distancing, domestic violence and increased pregnancy are also factors.

Women 40 years and older experience the highest level of severe depression (30.1 per cent), compared to 26 per cent of those 30 to 39 years old, 24.6 per cent of those 18 to 20 years, and 17.7 per cent of those 21 to 29 years old, it found.

“The findings revealed that single Jamaican women (17.9 per cent) have the lowest level of severe depression, followed by married women (19.2 per cent). On the other hand, Jamaican women who are widowed had the highest level of severe depression, followed by those who are separated (31.7 per cent),” read an excerpt of the study obtained by The Sunday Gleaner.

It also noted that women who classified themselves as being in the working class were more severely depressed than those in the middle and upper classes; and that Jamaican women who lived in St James had the highest level of severe depression (53.4 per cent), followed by those who lived in Kingston (47.3 per cent), then Hanover (35.1 per cent), Portland (31.3 per cent), and St Catherine (23 per cent). Women who lived in Clarendon, the study added, had the lowest level of severe depression, at 1.0 per cent.

“What it means from a policy perspective is that unless we can stop the depression of women in Jamaica, we are going to see a number of children who are maladjusted to society because many of them are being raised by single mothers,” charged Paul Bourne, acting director of Institutional Research at NCU.

“If mothers are moderate to highly depressed, then there is no way they will be focused on how to train the child properly, and ultimately, there is the risk of children being ill-socialised,” he continued.

NCU’s research was conducted between October 1 and November 1 this year and utilised the estimated female adult population in 2018 as reported by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica. The sampling method had a 95 per cent confidence rate, and a 2.8 per cent margin of error.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com

KEY FINDINGS

• All Jamaican women ages 18 years and older suffer from some degree of depression

• 22.8% of Jamaican women have severe depression

• 0.4% women have very severe depression

• 68.9% of women are mildly depressed

• 30.1% of women 40 years and older experience severe depression

• 26% of women 30-39 years old have severe depression

• 24.6% of women 18-20 years have severe depression

• 17.7% of women 21-29 years old have severe depression

• 17.9% of single Jamaican women have severe depression

• 19.2% of married women have severe depression.

• 31.7% of women who are widowed or separated have severe depression

• 53.4% of women who live in St James have the highest level of severe depression

• 47.3% of Kingston women have severe depression

• 35.1% of women in Hanover have severe depression

• 31.3% of Portland women have severe depression

• 23% of women in St Catherine have severe depression

• 1.0% of women who live in Clarendon have severe depression.

SOURCE: NCU study on ‘The Prevalence of Depression in Jamaican women: Post-COVID-19’