Improving Women’s Mental Health During a Pandemic

Abstract

This paper evaluates a randomized over-the-phone counseling intervention aimed at mitigating the mental health impact of COVID-19 on a sample of 2,402 women across 357 villages in Bangladesh. We find that the provision of 2 hours of mental support plus information on COVID-19 improves mental health ten months post-intervention, leading to reductions of 20% in the prevalence of moderate and severe stress and 33% in depression. Our results suggest that this type of low-cost intervention ($14 per person) can be effective in providing rapid psychological support to vulnerable groups in times of crises.

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