Womanifesto to improve drug & alcohol treatment for women

A definite strategy

The Womanifesto opens by setting out why ladies’s therapy wants a definite strategy, arguing that girls’s experiences with substance use differ considerably from males’s, necessitating a tailor-made response:

Ladies comprise 52% of the inhabitants however solely 33% of therapy service customers.

They face increased charges of childhood trauma and interpersonal violence.Drug-related deaths amongst ladies proceed to rise.Ladies are six instances extra seemingly than males to have kids eliminated because of substance use.They’re overrepresented in maternal deaths, typically linked to home abuse.

Suggestions

The report makes three key suggestions to Authorities; offering a rationale, key elements of implementation and subsequent steps for every.

Suggestion One – Ladies solely areas and providers

Ask: Make women-only areas and providers a compulsory requirement for all drug and alcohol therapy suppliers.

Rationale: Ladies typically have histories of trauma and male violence. Single-sex environments present bodily and psychological security, enabling more practical engagement and restoration.

Implementation:

Ladies-only teams and drop-insFemale key staff by defaultStaff skilled in ladies’s issuesWomen-centric well being assessments and care plansTimely entry to women-only residential servicesPolicies addressing home abuse, menopause, and being pregnant.

Subsequent Steps:

Develop strategic approaches and minimal requirements for girls’s servicesMake compliance with these requirements a commissioning requirement

Suggestion Two – Motherhood and maternity

Ask: Enhance responses for moms, together with these with out kids of their care.

Rationale: Worry of kid elimination deters moms from in search of assist. One in 5 ladies has one other youngster after elimination, typically dealing with accelerated proceedings. Stigma and lack of child-friendly environments additional hinder entry.

Subsequent Steps:

Share findings from the June 2025 sector-wide safeguarding engagementExplore alternatives for system-wide enchancment in collaboration with kids’s social care

Suggestion Three – Co-designed ladies’s pathway and partnerships

Ask: Redesign the therapy system from a lady’s perspective, with sturdy partnerships throughout providers.

Rationale: Ladies face distinctive limitations and require tailor-made responses. Generic tweaks are inadequate; a full redesign is required.

Implementation:

Versatile, trauma-informed entry (e.g., outreach, relational approaches)Proactive barrier discount (e.g., childcare provision)Co-designed providers with womenStrong partnerships with ladies’s centres, home abuse and sexual violence (DASV) providers, and sexual well being suppliers

Subsequent Steps:

Commissioning areas to map ladies’s therapy journeysIdentify missed alternatives and key native partnersEnsure ladies with lived expertise are central to the mapping course of

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Ladies’s Remedy Working Group calls on OHID to co-produce a gender-responsive therapy system that displays the realities of girls’s lives. By way of devoted areas, assist for moms, and co-designed pathways, we are able to construct a system that’s protected, inclusive, and efficient for all ladies.