Prevalence of Depression among Women in the United Kingdom and the Support Services Available to The

Demonstrate The Following Knowledge And Understanding Critical Appreciation Of Differing Social Group’s Experiences Of Health And/Or Healthcare In The United Kingdom.

Demonstrate The Following Skills And Abilities Systematic Review Of The Literature Linked To Service Provision Related To a Health/Care And a Social Group, Identifying Appropriate And Relevant Research Papers And Synthesise And Critically Evaluate Your Findings.

As per the official report of Mentalhealth.org.uk (2020), in the year 2018 it was seen that 24.9% of the females in the age bracket of 16-64 years of age experienced depression within the nation of UK in comparison to only 16.3% of male related to the same age bracket experiencing depression in the concerned nation. Petersen et al. (2018) are of the viewpoint that depression is a common mental health disorder faced by the individuals wherein the individuals experience loss of pleasure or interest, depressed mood, low self-worth, feelings of guilt, loss of appetite, disturbed sleep, low energy level, poor concentration and others. Adding to this, Dregan et al. (2020) have noted that the societal deprivation which the women had to face since the traditional times had left a deep imprint on the lives of the women even in the present times, the lack of support services which are being offered to the women in UK suffering from depression, the gender inequality that the women had to face and others are some of the most important factors which have contributed towards the high prevalence of depression among women in UK.

The biological factors and the present social factors rather than the historical factors have directly contributed towards the high prevalence of depression among women in comparison to men. According to Niedzwiedz et al. (2019), there are various biological reasons like puberty, premenstrual problems, pregnancy, postpartum depression, perimenopause and menopause, periods and others because of which the women are more likely to face depression in comparison to men. In addition to these, it is seen that even in the present times the women in UK had to face a significant amount of gender inequality, gender pay gap and other related societal evils within the societal framework of the UK which in turn had adversely affected the mental wellbeing of the women (Lyall et al. 2018). Moreover, the past historical factors like ostracism, deprivation of education, employment, healthcare opportunities and others do not have a significant role on the lives of the modern women since unlike their ancestors they do not have to face these issues within the contemporary society of UK (Levis et al. 2019). However, it had been seen that the discrimination or the stigmatization that the people suffering from depression had to face within the nation of UK even in the present times often deters the women are availing the mental health care services which are being offered by UK which in turn aggravates the issues faced by them (Bauer, Knapp and Parsonage 2016).

Prevalence of Depression among Women in the UK

Presently, different kinds of online support services related to depression and mental health for women are being offered by the UK government in collaboration with the NHS like Big White Wall, Depression UK, Timebanking UK, Sane website and others (Nhs.uk 2020). In addition to these, women suffering from depression also have the option to avail the help of the different counselors, psychologists and others for overcoming the issues faced by them. Furthermore, these individuals also have the option to turn to the primary care providers or for that matter visit the healthcare centers of the NHS wherein upon the primary examination they would be recommended to the relevant department or the healthcare professionals on the basis of the gravity of the mental health issues faced by them (Sarkar, Webster and Gallacher 2018). In this connection, it needs to be said that the majority of the women in UK suffering from depression do not opt for the support services thinking that the depression mood they experience would pass away on its own which as a matter of fact deteriorates their mental state even further (Petersen et al. 2018).     

The aim of this study is to analyze the prevalence of depression among women in the nation of UK while focusing on the support services which are available to them in UK for recovering from the same. This is an important issue within the nation of UK it is seen that the number of women suffering from depression had increased in an exponential manner within the concerned nation which in turn had adversely affected the wellbeing of the women. More importantly, the women often because of their own personal reasons, out of fear of being discriminated or ostracized, lack of knowledge regarding the mental health services which are being offered by the NHS and others within the concerned nation fail to get the required help for the depression or the other mental health issues faced by them (Dregan et al. 2020). Thus, the researcher had selected this particular topic for analysis since this is not only an important contemporary issue which the women in UK are presently facing but its resolution is also important from the perspective of the quality of life that they lead as well as the overall growth. Moreover, by focusing on the support services which are available to the women and the factors which hinder them to opt for the support services, the researcher intends to create the required awareness through which the depression and the other mental health issues faced by the women in UK can be resolved via the improvement of the support services which are being offered to them. This will also help the women to understand the ways through which they can overcome depression and also the support services which are available to them for overcoming the same.    

Factors Contributing to Depression among Women in the UK

The researcher for the collection of the primary research articles needed for the completion of this paper took the help of Google Scholar. More importantly, different keywords or search terms like “depression among women in UK”, “support services for women in UK suffering from depression”, “primary research articles on depression among women in UK” and others were used for the purpose of locating the articles. Furthermore, after location around 12 articles, the researcher took the help of the inclusion and exclusion process through which the articles most relevant to the study under discussion here were selected keeping into perspective the fact that they need to be primary research based articles. The information gathered from these primary research articles would be analyzed through the usage of the qualitative data analysis method of thematic analysis for addressing the research topic effectively.    

The researcher initially located around 12 articles related to the prevalence of depression among women in UK and the support services related to the same which are being offered to them. From these 12 articles, 6 articles were finally selected by the researcher on the basis of the inclusion and exclusion strategy. The below given table offers an insight into the inclusion and exclusion strategy which was followed by the researcher for the selection of the six primary research based article-

References

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