The Women’s Regional Consortium is pleased to publish our latest research report, Mental Health Matters for Women. You can read the full report here, and a summary of the report here.

Northern Ireland has long been associated with high levels of poor mental health with
around one in five adults showing signs of mental health problems. Research shows that
women are often more vulnerable to suffering from poor mental health. The costs of poor
mental health to both people and society are significant. Therefore, effectively addressing
high levels of poor mental health could result in profound benefits across individual,
economic and societal levels.

The findings from this research clearly show that women’s poor mental health is driven by a range of factors including gendered expectations and life-cycle factors, systemic failures in the health service, economic strain, trauma and societal stigma. Supports through the health service are widely perceived to be ‘broken’, difficult to access and too short-term. In contrast, many women described the supports/services from Women’s Centres/Groups as ‘lifesaving’.