Campaigns
Campaigning to get women’s voices heard, at a local and national level, has always been at the heart of the organisation. Wish campaigns to influence the development and delivery of women-centred policy and practice, and acts to increase women’s participation in the services they receive.
Below is a description of our current campaigning work.
Why Gender Matters
The treatment and care of women with mental health needs in hospital, prison and the community is being severely compromised by the widening gulf between policy and practice, and the lack of joined-up thinking between the Mental Health and Criminal Justice Systems. Despite extensive recommendations to move away from ‘one size fits all' provision to address women's diversity of need, women continue to report feeling vulnerable within a system that is inadequate at best, and abusive at worst. There is both a financial and human cost to the current situation. Women are falling through the gaps between systems and those with the highest support needs are dropped from statutory mechanisms when they are unable to engage with services.
The campaign's vision is:
- To give women a voice and ensure their views are at the heart of policy changes
- To build a bridge between policy and practice
- To unite all stakeholders to offer a joined-up approach
- To unite all service providers, commissioners and policy makers to ‘put gender back on the agenda'
- To establish an ongoing dialogue between those who devise, deliver and receive services
- To give women control over their own treatment and care, their lives and futures
- To promote the sharing of good practice and hold parties accountable for bad practice
- To operationalise concepts that are too vague, or insufficiently strategized, to be translated into practice - specifically the government's mission that the three principles of mental health care should be ‘hope, agency and opportunity'
Activities of the campaign include: data gathering, qualitative research and consultations with service users to build a comprehensive picture of current services; conferences, seminars and workshops; raising public awareness; increasing the importance of this issue for those in power; a media campaign; free training packages for commissioners and service providers; free legal support for women to know their rights and entitlements; working with other third sector organisations to replicate the Wish model of working.
For information about our first Why Gender Matter campaign, read about Stolen Voices.
Women's Mental Health Network
Wish established the Women's Mental Health Network (WMHN) to develop an evidence base of areas where policy is not applied, and examples of good practice too. The aim is to establish a channel of communication between the women who use services, the voluntary organisations that support them, and the policy makers, service providers and commissioners who decide what services they receive. The WMHN gets women's voices heard, in its campaign for services that meet women's needs and holds service providers accountable to make sure policy is turned into practice at a local level. The Network is a vehicle for ongoing consultation with women and unites voluntary organisations and individuals nationwide to form a strong platform for change, closing the gap across sectors. Changing a culture is difficult - success depends on working together.
Get Involved…
- Become a Wish member
- Follow our campaign updates through our social media
- Get in touch with us about sharing your experience of service delivery and to discuss pooling any evidence you may yourself have collated as an organisation.
- Speak to us about adopting a gender-specific advocacy model in your organisation, partnering with us on commissions, or receiving our training and consultancy programme