The marginalisation of women in forensic mental health and prison systems, and the impact of this on women’s psychological well-being
This presentation will focus on the exclusion of women in relation to therapeutic service delivery in prison and forensic mental health institutions. Research evidence will be presented that indicates that women are exponentially more vulnerable in these systems than men, not least because these systems assume that men and women’s needs are similar; services are accordingly oriented.
It will be suggested that women entering these systems are in the main suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and that the systems’ responses retraumatise and exacerbate existing vulnerabilities, thus placing women at much greater risk of self-harm and subsequent harsh treatment. Women who enter these institutions have backgrounds of trauma, poverty, and deprivation, as well as ongoing histories of abuse. The systems not only ignore these vulnerabilities but do not privilege their experience, for example infantilise them by calling them “girls” and label them in the main as “personality disordered” thus not responsive to treatment.
This paper will highlight the explicit and implicit ways in which the disrespect towards women is replicated in these contexts, and suggest ways in which women’s emotional, spiritual and psychological needs could by contrast be respected in these restrictive environments.