Women’s Support Network Policy Worker, Siobhán Harding has completed a series of focus groups with women across Northern Ireland for the next Consortium research paper ‘Mental Health Matters for Women’. The focus groups involved 67 women in total and 60 women completed questionnaire returns.
The aim of the research was to highlight a number of areas:
- The problems with poor mental health in Northern Ireland.
- Women’s increased likelihood to experience poor mental health.
- The contributing factors to poor mental health and the impact of poor mental health on women’s lives.
- What supports women are currently receiving with their mental health including from their local Women’s Centre and what further supports they feel are needed.
- To highlight the role of Women’s Centres and women’s organisations in helping women with poor mental health to live better lives and take the opportunities open to them.
Siobhán has now begun to write up the research paper and this will take some time. The aim is to publish the research for Mental Health Awareness Week which runs from 11th May to 17th May 2026.
