Mental health concerns and their distribution by age and gender in selected communities of Peshawar, Pakistan

Abstract

This study investigated the mental health concerns of 135 people who received psychological support through community-based services in selected communities of Peshawar, Pakistan. We reviewed routine service records to understand who sought help and what problems they faced, focusing on differences by age, gender, and education. The people served were almost evenly split between men and women, mostly adults aged 20 to 50 years, and mostly from low-income households. Depression and anxiety were by far the most common concerns, together making up more than half of all cases. The type of problem was closely linked to age: young children were more often dealt with behavioral or developmental concerns, while depression was most common among teenagers and adults. Gender also mattered a great deal: women were far more likely than men to be dealing with depression (39% vs 13%), while men were more likely to report stress, behavioral issues, or personality-related concerns. A similar pattern held across education levels, where depression remained the leading concern overall, and stood out sharply among people with no formal education, who reported depression almost twice as often (48%) as other groups. These findings suggest that mental health support in these communities should be tailored by age, gender, and education rather than offered as a single, one-size-fits-all program, and they point to opportunities for Blessing Welfare and Development Organization (BWDO) to strengthen and better target its community-based mental health services, particularly for women dealing with depression and for people who never had the chance to attend school.