The success of the government’s new women’s health strategy will depend on its ability to ‘deliver impact for the most marginalised and vulnerable women in society’, said Change Grow Live deputy chief executive Nic Adamson – women who are frequently missed by mainstream health services.
The strategy, which was published yesterday, aims to put women’s experiences ‘at the centre of care’ across the system and ensure their voices are listened to and acted upon, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) states. This will include a new trial to explore how women’s feedback can be directly linked to provider funding, to make sure services are held accountable and ‘stamp out long-standing issues with women being ignored’.
The document also contains plans to help support women to reduce their alcohol consumption – including the introduction of the long-debated requirement for alcohol products to display ‘consistent’ nutritional information and health warnings. The government will also publish outreach, single homeless and complex needs toolkits to improve support for women sleeping rough.
‘It’s encouraging to see continued government recognition that women have historically been under-served by systems largely designed around male bodies and male health experiences,’ said Adamson. ‘Last year, over 100,000 women accessed drug and alcohol treatment services. For each of them, substance use may be the reason for first engagement, but it is rarely the full picture. It is intertwined with trauma, poverty, inequality, caregiving responsibilities, domestic abuse, and other health issues.’
While these experiences were central to women’s health, too often mainstream services were ‘not designed to respond to this complexity’, she continued, with women falling through the gaps as a result. Change Grow Live had undertaken a comprehensive review of women’s experiences across its services, she said, with the aim of making support more accessible, inclusive and trauma-responsive.
The government’s new strategy would be complemented by the violence against women and girls strategy and sentencing reforms that could lead to a specific women’s pathway for drug and alcohol treatment, she added. ‘These are positive steps, but they also highlight how fragmented policymaking in this space can be. The renewed women’s health strategy has a critical role to play in bringing this together, ensuring that women’s health is addressed through a genuinely joined-up, whole-system approach that reflects the realities of women’s lives.’
Renewed women’s health strategy for England available here