No.Not everyone can access the psychotherapy, despite having a great need. Especially women with a small child and after childbirth, when they often suffer from transient depression, can find themselves experiencing a period of great emotional distress and having no time or way to seek help. And if there are no economic resources available, suffering multiplies because it has no hope of being resolved.
The idea of Serenis for mothers
The platform has thought of all this Serenis (serenis.it)which on the occasion of Mental Health Month he decided to put a total of five hundred hours of therapy is available to new mothers who would like to access therapybut they don’t have the chance.
«We all know that being a mother in Italy is not easy, e access to psychological support is one of the difficulties: the tip of the iceberg is there postpartum depression which affects an average of 1 in 10 women, but under this number there is a much larger one related to issues such as anxiety, guilt and stress. And the relationship between motherhood and work it is one of the triggering reasons »explains Silvia Wang, cofounder of Serenis.it. «I myself suffered from it, and for this reason we decided, on the occasion of Mental Health Month, to make 500 hours of quality psychotherapy available to over one hundred mothers, to be carried out online through Serenis with one of the therapists of our network. It is about packages of three sessions plus an introductory interview, which is what allows you to determine if the therapist is the right one for you. We hope this way of give concrete help to women, alongside measures such as the Psychologist Bonus which also go in this direction. The goal is to be able to repeat these initiatives on a periodic basis ».
Who can take advantage of the free online psychotherapy service
To access the initiative is sufficient register on serenis.it/sedute-neomamme: the project is open to women who have had a child in the past three years, or that I am in the state of pregnancythey have manifested the typical symptoms of postpartum discomfort. Crisis of tears, severe sadness, mood swings or irritability, disinterest in the child or, on the contrary, excessive worries, feelings of guilt and inadequacy, panic attacks and eating or sleeping problems are the signs that should not be underestimated. However, mothers who wish to receive the online service must give willingness to give continuity to the sessions weekly. There are no income limitsalthough Serenis encourages a sense of responsibility and a leave room for those who really need it.
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The data on the emotional distress of mothers
According to Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA), a non-profit association in the UK dedicated to mothers and their access to mental health, approx 1 in 5 women develop a mental health problem during pregnancy or in the first few years after having a baby. The risk of suffering from anxiety, depression and panic attacks is further increased in times of pandemics.
A fact confirmed also in Italy, so much so that according to the ONDA Foundation (National Observatory on Women’s Health)between 50 to 80% of moms suffer from baby blues, a benign form of depression with mild symptoms. The percentages fall but are still too high even when it comes to forms of post partum depression (7-12% of women during the first year of the child’s life according to the Ministry of Health), dpost traumatic stress disorder (percentage of women between 2-3% up to 25%), up to the rarest and most serious forms of mental disorders.
Psychotherapy costs money and many mothers give it up
In short, women remain “fragile” subjects during a delicate period such as that of motherhood, and even looking at the issue from an economic point of view, things do not improve: again the MMHA records that in 2021 only 4.5% of English mothers made effective use of mental support, for a minimum cost estimated between 20,000 and 30,000 pounds a year. Numbers not far from those of the our country, where accessibility is an even more serious problem: according to some estimates, they are indeed as many as 3.5 million people with diagnosed discomfort who do not resort to therapy.
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