A free webinar examining how women’s needs can be better met through specialist residential provision

The Time Held Gently report looked at the experiences of women in treatment, women who had completed, as well as staff and professionals from across the sector. It highlights the barriers women face, the challenges of beginning recovery, and the systemic changes needed to improve support.

This webinar will look at the report’s findings and examine potential steps that can be taken to improve outcomes.

What we’ll cover:

• Funding pressures – why 12 weeks isn’t long enough, and how short stays risk ‘setting women up to fail.’
• Motherhood and caring – how women juggle treatment with the needs of children and families.
• Trauma and trust – why time, safety, and women-only spaces are essential for healing.
• System gaps – the missing data on mothers without parental responsibility.
• Reform needed – including ending the practice of women writing ‘letters to panel’ to justify funding.

Who should attend?
Commissioners, practitioners, policy-makers, and anyone working in health, social care, or recovery who wants to better understand women’s experiences of residential treatment.

Speakers
This free webinar will be chaired by Dr Emily Finch, with Hannah Shead presenting the findings of the report and Dr Carly Guest discussing designing with women in mind, alongside academic perspectives and lived experience stories.

Dr Emily Finch is Facilitator, Clinical Director & Addictions Operational Directorate at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College London and Addictions Clinical Academic Group.

Hannah Shead of Hannah Shead Consulting, specialising in women’s services.

Dr Carly Guest is Assistant Professor in Sociology at Northumbria University. Much of her work is concerned with the realisation of transformative, decarceral, feminist spaces of care. Alongside Dr Rachel Seoighe, Carly produced A Women’s Building Manifesto – a document that brings together the vision of the ‘ideal’ women’s building, drawing on the imaginations and experiences of women from organisations across the UK.