21 Jul 2022
By Indy Cross, Chief Executive of Agenda
The government’s recently published Women’s Health Strategy is a welcome step to addressing the gender health gap, and a positive example of the benefits of taking a gendered approach to national policy making.
It includes welcome steps, including:
- introducing a definition of trauma-informed practice for the health sector;
- encouraging the expansion of Women’s Health Hubs around the country and other models of ‘one-stop clinics’; and
- a focus on mental and physical health disparities for Black, Asian and minoritised women and women who have faced problems with addiction and homelessness.
We are concerned, however, that the strategy has failed to truly grasp the opportunity to tackle the growing mental health crisis amongst women and girls. Whilst critical areas impacting women and girls’ mental health are referenced – including experiences of abuse, violence, poverty and discrimination – the steps laid out do not go far enough to tackle these harms.
Mental health is a serious and growing concern for women and girls. Agenda’s Struggling Alone briefing paper highlighted that over a quarter of young women have symptoms of depression or anxiety, three times the rate of their male counterparts. Despite the scale of the challenge, the Women’s Health Strategy comes with no new money to improve women and girls’ mental health. Without further investment and central focus, women and girls’ mental health will continue to suffer.
We know that women and girls want and need more than this. In the Government call for evidence, mental health was in the top five topics selected by respondents for inclusion in the Women’s Health Strategy across each age group. Women and girls who Agenda work with consistently refer to the ways in which poor mental health can be a cause and consequence of other problems in their lives. Without specialist, age-, gender- and trauma- and culturally-responsive services that recognise their mental health needs, women and girls can bounce from crisis to crisis, unable to receive the help they need.
We are committed to continuing to advocate for and address the needs of women and girls, especially those that have historically been overlooked. The appointment of key new roles, including Professor Dame Lesley Regan as the Women’s Health Ambassador for England, will be critical to driving forward this work. We look forward to working with all key players in the future to deliver a more ambitious vision for all women and girls, especially those currently most disadvantaged.