The Young Women in Mind programme was established by the Pilgrim Trust in 2021 in response to worsening mental health outcomes among young women and the lack of national level approaches to address their needs. The Centre worked with the Pilgrim Trust as the programme’s evaluation partner and supported with creating opportunities for influencing policy.
According to NHS research, young women are twice as likely to experience a mental health problem compared to young men. There are many factors that contribute to this such as experiences of sexism and misogyny which many women face from very young ages at home or at school. This starts from seemingly harmless statements and stereotypes where young girls are told that they are not smart enough, or strong enough compared to their male counterparts. Young women who have experienced sexism are five times more likely to experience depression than those who haven’t. Also, in this age of increased social media use especially among young people, young women are even more exposed to risk factors such as online bullying and abuse and unrealistic beauty standards leading to poor body image which can negatively impact their mental health. Domestic abuse is another driver of mental health difficulties for girls and young women with evidence showing that one in two women seeking mental health support do so as a direct result of domestic abuse and half of all suicide attempts by women are associated with experiences of domestic abuse. Research has also found that women face a greater burden from unpaid labour such as childcare, cooking and housework which can have a negative impact on their mental health.
Despite the substantial amount of evidence gathered on these recurring issues, current mental health services are not acknowledging or meeting young women’s specific needs and continue to take on generic approaches to mental health support for young women. Providing adequate support is even more essential for young women with complex needs and marginalised young women.
Our evaluation of the Young Women in Mind programme, Empowering Minds, found that young women’s mental health improved after they received tailored age and gender specific support from the funded projects. Taking from the accounts of project leads and multiple young women, multiple factors allowed this to happen:
Safe spaces
Safe spaces Funded projects creating safe, flexible, and non-clinical spaces where young women can share their experiences without the fear of being judged was an important element that made the support successful. Young women are also more likely to share their mental health problems with healthcare professionals who build confidential and trusting relationships with them.
Meeting young women’s needs
Funded projects accommodating specific needs such as providing on-site childcare support, covering transport costs where possible, and being flexible with the timings of the sessions.
Peer support
Young women receiving peer support from other young women from a similar age group and shared experiences which helped to boost their self-esteem and build new and supportive friendships. The funded projects providing young women with support when transitioning to adult services was also beneficial and made the process less stressful for them.
Creative forms of support
Young women using creative interventions and alternative forms of therapy such as dance classes, art-based therapy, pottery painting and drama programmes. Having these creative interventions improved the young women’s confidence and helped them develop positive coping mechanisms
Trauma-informed approaches
Incorporating trauma-informed approaches was also an important element of the support. Young women who received trauma-informed support were able to unpack the impact of their traumatic experiences which further led to them working on ways to improve their mental health.
[…] it’s relaxed, you don’t feel like you’re in a doctor’s surgery being quizzed on what you’re doing, like you can freely speak about what you want to speak about … you’re talking to someone, and no one acts shocked, they’re just ready to listen to what you’ve got to say.
Young woman from Women’s Community Matters
Although the programme evaluation provided valuable learnings as highlighted above, there were some challenges. One major one was around the evaluation tools used for the survey questions which we found were not suitable for the young women. Some found them too intrusive, and not perceived as trauma-informed. As support often ended informally, this meant it was more difficult to follow up with young women, and barriers to digital access also limited participation.
When designing programmes and their evaluations, it is important that evaluation tools are coproduced, tested and validated with marginalised young women to help ensure that they can engage with them, and to support stronger response rates.
Building on these findings and reflections, we recommend that mental health service providers incorporate age and gender specific, trauma informed support into their provision. Placing young women at the heart of service design and co-producing mental health support is important for creating spaces where young women feel safe and listened to. Supporting the wellbeing of support workers and staff running services is also really important and further improves service provision and delivery. Finally, adopting a holistic, person-centred approach that reaches all young women especially those from marginalised groups will greatly improve young women’s mental health.
We need national policymakers to invest in tailored, trauma-informed support, include age and gender specific approaches in mental health strategies and take action to reduce the prevalence of mental health problems in young women.
It is important now more than ever, to empower young women by taking steps to improve their mental health.
Adetola Obateru is a Researcher at Centre for Mental Health.
