When we launched the Young Women’s Mental Health programme, the cornerstone of our work was to encourage and fund organisations that take an age and gender-specific approach to their mental health provision. But why is such an approach so important to us? Below we share the research and why this approach is key.
When starting the Young Women’s Mental Health programme in 2021, we learnt that creating age and gender appropriate services for women and girls’ health wasn’t new. In the earlier 2000s, the UK government recognised the importance of offering gender-specific mental health provision. In a 2002 government report, Into the Mainstream, they called for ‘a detailed implementation guide clearly outlining ways in which services could be modified and care delivered at little or no extra cost in a gender-sensitive and often gender-specific way’. Implementing the recommendations from this report was limited – but there was a consensus of the importance of gender-sensitive approaches to women and girls’ mental health.
A 2018 report from the British Medical Association, Addressing unmet needs in women’s mental health, reiterated that ‘Women and girls have distinct and specific needs and, therefore, policies, services and practice need to be gender-informed’. They reported stark statistics that reflected young women aged 16-25 are most vulnerable to poor mental health:
‘25% of young women between the ages of 16-25 (APMS 2016) report symptoms of common mental disorder (mainly anxiety and depression); rates of self-harm in women are higher than ever, again especially in young women.’
Additionally in 2018 the UK government published the final report from The Women’s Mental Health Taskforce, which had developed clear gender and trauma-informed principles to be applied in service design and delivery. The report states that:
‘Discussions about mental health, alongside service design and delivery, frequently fails to take gender into account. This can lead to situations where services can be inadvertently discriminatory towards women because they have been designed, whether consciously or unconsciously, around the needs of men.’
Importantly, young women’s needs were not forgotten. The report recognised how young women are a ‘particularly high-risk group for mental health problems’ and that risk increases for minoritised women, along with the importance of ensuring ‘Services should consider the age–specific needs of a woman… an adolescent girl will have different needs and experiences in comparison to a woman going through the menopause.’
An art session with young women refugees by a second year Young Women’s Mental Health grantee, Refugee Women Connect. (Photo credit: Refugee Women Connect)
Now two years into the programme, new pieces of research have rejuvenated the focus on gender and age-sensitive approaches. Published in August 2022, the latest 10-year, Women’s Health Strategy in England identified mental health and wellbeing as one of their six priority areas. Their ambitions for the next 10 years of mental health include some gender-specific approaches to mental health, advocating for:
‘A broader and deeper understanding of the causes of differential mental health outcomes between men and women to ensure national and local partners are equipped to develop tailored plans and interventions that meet the needs of different population groups.’
Similarly, a report published in November 2022, Hidden in Plain Sight, by the Commission on Young Lives recognised the age range of 16-25 is where many more young women face mental health disorders: ‘Boys aged 6 to 10 are more likely to have a probable mental disorder than girls, but in 17 to 19-year-olds this pattern reverses, with rates higher in young women than young men’. The Commission also describes the transition between child and adult mental health services as very difficult: ‘A great deal of individuals, groups and organisations… told the Commission that once a young person reaches the age of 18, they are often cut off from any help or support and expected to ‘fend for themselves’.
Agenda Alliance’s Girls Speak: Final Report, also published in November 2022, deep dives into the importance of age, gender and trauma-informed mental health provision and the failure of “gender-neutral” approaches:
‘When statutory services, and some non-specialist youth services, assume so-called “gender-neutral” or “gender-blind” approaches, this leads to the specific and gendered needs of young women being overlooked and underestimated. Ultimately, there is nothing neutral about “gender-neutral” policy that fails to consider the distinct needs of girls and young women.’
Within the report there are in-depth statistics on these distinct needs of young women and girls, for instance:
- Girls and young women aged 16 to 24 report the highest rates of domestic abuse experienced by any age group.
- Studies suggest that rates of self-harm are highest amongst young Black women but they are less likely to receive support for this.
- Around 90% of all single parents are women. Half of all children in lone-parent families are now living in relative poverty.
- 90% of local authorities do not provide any gender-specialist services for Black, Asian, and minoritised girls and young women.
Agenda also explain the importance of an age-appropriate service: ‘Being treated in a way that is not age-appropriate can also be harmful to young women, either by being treated as older or younger than they are.’ ‘Adultification’ is particularly prevalent for Black, Asian and minoritized young women, where Agenda defines this as ‘professionals under-estimating vulnerability, attributing greater levels of maturity to a young woman, and downplaying their safeguarding responsibilities towards her’.
Through this snapshot of research, we see the complex, intersectional and multiple needs of young women. Service providers must design and implement policies and provisions that correlate to the experiences of young women they aim to help – or they risk further isolating or retraumatising young women and girls. As research is growing in this area, we see it as important part of our Young Women’s Mental Health programme to influence key stakeholders and decision makers to build the distinct age and gender needs into their service provision.
Coming soon in a follow up piece, we look into what a gender and age-sensitive approach looks like outside of the research by sharing the journey of our grantees. Find out more about our Young Women’s Mental Health programme.
Sources:
- ‘Women’s Mental Health: Into the Mainstream’, by Department of Health, 2002, PDF.
- ‘Addressing unmet needs in women’s mental health’, by Professor Kathyrn M. Abel & Dr Karen Newbigging, BMA, 2018, PDF.
- ‘The Women’s Mental Health Taskforce’, by Department of Health & Social Care and Agenda Alliance, 2018, PDF.
- ‘Women’s Health Strategy for England’, Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, August 2022, PDF.
- ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’, Commission for Young Lives, November 2022, PDF.
- ‘Pushed Out, Left Out. Girls Speak: Final Report’, Agenda Alliance, November 2022, PDF.
Feature image of young women participating in a workshop by second year Young Women’s Mental Health grantee, NE Youth. (Photo credit: NE Youth).