Healthcare | Tuesday 9 June, 2015 12:51 pm |

Understanding of women’s mental health issues need to improve in the United Arab Emirates, according to doctors at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), which has established the UAE’s first specialist care unit to improve the quality of treatment women receive.

SKMC is managed by Cleveland Clinic and is a SEHA Health System facility.

The women’s mental health clinic, part of the Behavioral Science Pavilion (BSP), offers consultations and therapy for psychological disorders relating to the menstrual cycle and pregnancy – including pregnancy loss, menopausal disorders and postpartum disorders – and for psychological disorders resulting from violence against women, including domestic abuse and sexual assault.

According to the World Health Organisation, one in three women in developing countries and one in ten in developed countries have significant mental health problems during pregnancy and after childbirth. Women are also twice as likely to experience depression as men, due to hormonal, social, and situational reasons.

“People need to understand the difficulties and challenges involved in treating women’s conditions. In Western countries nowadays, you have specialist women’s mental health hospitals but we were lacking such a facility here, which is why we decided to open the clinic at SKMC,” said Dr Fatema Al Mansouri, consultant psychiatrist, SKMC and Arab Board certified in Psychiatry. “We need to educate people about the issues involved and decrease the stigma related to women’s mental health issues.”

At times some women are reticent to attend, Dr. Al Mansour said, seeing mental health issues with a feeling that there is something wrong with them if they are unable to cope.

“A woman who gives birth to a child and has a husband may feel like she is less of a woman if she has to receive treatment for something like postpartum depression, and she may wonder why she can’t cope when friends and family members are able to,” said Dr. Al Mansouri. “This can lead to feelings of inadequacy and guilt, which are only going to make the situation worse.”

Dr. Al Mansouri has been giving talks at conferences and lectures on the issues involved, including public campaigns and workshops, as well as seeking to raise awareness among primary health care physicians.

“If you have a condition like diabetes or high blood pressure you wouldn’t expect to go to the doctor and be told that there is nothing really wrong with you or there’s no need for medication, and that you just need to pull yourself together,” said Dr. Al Mansouri. “But for many women that’s sometimes what they hear from their primary care provider, so we are working to educate them more on the challenges and issues involved. If we can get primary care providers to understand better, we can reduce the stigma attached to women’s mental health.”

The women’s mental health clinic has expanded, with the opening of a facility at Corniche Hospital in Abu Dhabi, and more staff are expected to be added there in coming months, said Dr Al Mansouri.