What do Women Want from Mental Health Services?
| Published date | 01 December 1996 |
| Pages | 21-26 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322199600039 |
| Date | 01 December 1996 |
| Author | Helen Smith |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
The Mental Health Review 1:4 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 1996 21
on what they want from mental health services.
However, this issue of ‘representativeness’ is one
which has been addressed within the user move-
ment for some years and, rightly, has not stopped
the growing influence of users as a group. Given
what is now known about user involvement within
statutory services, this article does not intend to
look in detail at how to involve women users — the
issues are not dissimilar and could be tackled by any
agency which has the will to truly consult its women
users. It is this latter point which I would like to
address, to make the case that women do have
unique needs in relation to mental health care and
to indicate to statutoryagencies that distinct service
responses arenot only desirable but necessary,if
local services are to be effective. By making the
case and giving some examples as to how services
could be developed to better meet women’s needs,
Ihope to show the value and possible outcomes of
consulting separately with women.
However, this article should start with an
acknowledgement of the good practice that does
exist. Good Practices in Mental Health4has recently
produced an excellent information pack on mental
health services for women across the UK; this is a
timely reminder that there is a wide range of services
which do attempt to meet women’s mental health
needs, although many of these areoutside the
statutory sector and those within it are on the
margins of mainstream services and are not seen
as central to local service provision. Most of the
initiatives within the pack areled by — or are the
result of — women users or women workers who
have a particular interest in women’s issues; there
arevirtually no schemes initiated by purchasers who
have identified gaps in service provision through
local needs assessment.
Helen Smith, Senior Consultant
CMHSD
Women are the main users of most mental
health services in primary and secondary
care. Yet there is growing evidence that
women — as users and carers — are poorly served
by current mental health services and few statutory
services appear to be explicitly informed by the
needs and views of women.1It is extremely rare to
find women’smental health user groups and even
rarer to find statutoryagencies who separately
consult women over their experiences of mental
health services. This is not to deny the women’s
user groups that do exist — or have existed — their
sterling efforts have, almost single-handedly, raised
the profile of women in mental health services.
However, they have not gained the prominence of
users groups, as a whole.
Within service development, the voice of users
is becoming well established, in the literature, in
national and local training events (conferences and
workshops) and in local developments. Black users
have started to make some impact, but women users
are still rarely seen or heard. There are, of course
some notable exceptions. A recent academic
publication on community mental health services
for women included a chapter by women users.2
However, MIND’s Finding Our Own Solutions,3
written a decade ago, remains perhaps the most
well-documented collection of women users’ views.
Partof the problem is the wide diversity of
women’s needs. Older women, women who have
been sexually abused, homeless women, mothers,
lesbians, women from minority groups, women who
are carers, young women, women who are victims
of domestic violence, all have different perspectives
What do Women Want from
Mental Health Services?
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