A new study reported by Health-e has revealed the mental health toll that COVID and the lockdown to control it took on residents of Soweto, with 957 participants interviewed before the lockdown and then six weeks into the lockdown.
The interviews revealed that some 14% of those surveyed were at risk of depression, which was worsened by factors such as childhood trauma as well as their level of knowledge about COVID. Feeling unable to take precautions against the virus caused anxiety levels to skyrocket.
“While participants believed that the pandemic did not affect their mental health or their ‘mind,’ the strong relationship between perceived risk and depressive symptoms raises the concern that they may not be aware of the potential threats to their mental health during Covid-19,” said Dr Andrew Wooyoung Kim, co-director of the study. “This discrepancy may be due to different ideas of mental health, including mental health stigma.”
Kim acknowledges that the challenging South African environment of poverty and poor services may also have had significant impacts.
“Our study re-emphasises the importance of prioritising and provisioning accessible mental health resources for resource-limited communities in Soweto and across South Africa,” Kim added.
