Putting a Priority on Women’s Mental Health

As easy as it is to say that mental health is health, it’s never quite that simple for women. Career and personal successes are often achieved in spite of the many challenges and roadblocks accomplished women come up against. “Nevertheless, she persisted,” has become a rallying cry not only for feminists but also for women pursuing a medical diagnosis when doctors wave off their symptoms.

Women’s mental health is chronically undervalued, underfunded and consequently, understudied. Despite women in Canada having higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders than men, a recent study found that only 3% of studies look explicitly at questions focused on women’s health.

This startling fact was shared by Stephanie Condra, Head of BMO Private Wealth’s National Strategy Office, at the beginning of Empowering Women’s Success and Mental Health, a recent event hosted by BMO Private Wealth, in partnership with womenmind, a community of philanthropists, thought leaders and scientists working to close the gender gap in mental health. She hosted a conversation between Sandi Treliving, Director on the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Foundation Board and founding funder of CAMH womenmind, Dr. Liisa Galea, Treliving Family Chair in Women’s Mental Health and Senior Scientist, CAMH, Zoey Dash McKenzie, Founding Partner, Public Ventures, and Dr. Zubina Mawji, Primary Care Physician at Cleveland Clinic Canada.

For Stephanie Condra, there’s a close link between wealth and mental health, which is why these issues are so important to her and BMO. “When our health and our mental health take up our attention or the attention of those that are close to us, it can impact your wealth,” she said.

She noted BMO’s long history of supporting women. “We know that our future will be more successful when women across our country feel empowered, educated and informed to make decisions about their finances, and about their health.”

In fact, BMO donated $5 million to CAMH on World Mental Health Day in 2023. The gift will go toward CAMH’s Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics as well as its new Research & Discovery Centre, which will begin construction in early 2024.

It laid the groundwork for the intimate conversation that followed about the crucial need to move the dial on women’s health research and how womenmind is doing just that.

Prioritizing women’s mental health

As one of the founding funders of womenmind, Sandi Treliving pointed to the fact that even though approximately 40% of CAMH’s scientists are female, very few studies were being conducted specifically about women’s mental health.

“It just stuck with me that out of all of the progressive things happening at CAMH,” explained Treliving, “like every other research centre, we were behind in women’s studies and funding for women’s mental health.”

In contrast with other gifts from the Treliving family, she added, this funding was officially coming from the women in her family. As an intergenerational gift, Treliving has involved her daughters, daughters-in-law and granddaughters in the foundation, in an effort to teach them about philanthropy. She keeps them apprised of all the research they are funding and encourages them to learn how this funding can have an impact on women around the world.

Zoey Dash McKenzie with Public Ventures also spoke of the importance of philanthropy in moving the foundation and its scientific discoveries forward, as government funding remains limited. “There are a lot of wonderful programs coming that are specific to women and women’s mental health. But it’s really predicated on the contributions of philanthropists, because there are a lot of barriers to accessing grants and the private capital markets right now.”

Dr. Liisa Galea, who is the inaugural Treliving Family Chair in Women’s Mental Health at CAMH, said the gap in research around women’s health means it can take up to two years longer than men for women to get a diagnosis for over 900 diseases.

“There are many reasons for delayed diagnosis,” she said. “But one of the main reasons, I believe, is that most of our medical knowledge, including the way we diagnose people, is based on research on men. This has unfortunately led to symptoms in women being labelled as “atypical” but these are not atypical to 50% of the population.”

 

From one taboo to another

While the issue of mental health has gradually become more openly discussed, one topic that remains taboo is menopause, noted Dr. Zubina Mawji with Cleveland Clinic Canada. Doing the math, she pointed out the fact that about 40% of a woman’s life is during and after menopause. With that said, many women have no idea what’s happening in their bodies, especially when it comes to the complex interplay between the mental, physical and emotional aspects of menopause.

“Menopause can really play havoc on our mental health,’’ Dr. Mawji explained. “I can’t tell you the number of times a patient, after we’ve gone through all of those 36 symptoms of menopause that they weren’t sure about, I hear them exhale and say, ‘OK, so I’m normal.’”

Menopause and the perimenopausal years leading up to it take place at a critical stage in many women’s careers. She estimated that as many as 25% of women in the workplace are perimenopausal or menopausal, and society is not prepared to discuss what they experience during that time.

“The number of executive level women I see in the office who say to me, ‘I have just been promoted into a senior level position, and I can’t deal with it because of my symptoms of menopause,’” Dr. Mawji said. She added that because women are the primary decision-makers when it comes to family health, there’s a real opportunity to pave the way for the next generation of girls and young women to prioritize both their physical and mental health.

“I wonder if those with teenage girls or teenage grandchildren are reflecting on what we can be doing to support that self-efficacy that’s going to be so important throughout the rest of their lives,” noted Condra.

In the end, the takeaway from all four panelists was the importance of self-care, community and knowledge as the foundation of women’s mental health, and that health is indeed wealth.

“The more that you can participate in these communities and learn about mental health and the information that’s out there,” McKenzie noted, “the stronger you can be for your family, friends and community members.”
 

Resources

Center for Addiction and Mental Health

CAMH womenmind

For more information on womenmind or for a tour of the CAMH facility, reach out to Múthoní Karíukí, Senior Philanthropy Officer, Engagement, CAMH Foundation.

 

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