CONSUMER AFFAIRS BULLETIN
Volume 3, No. 2 Summer 1998

Women & Mental Health

What is the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) doing to address women’s mental health? Where can women find information on mental health issues? Are women’s mental health needs different than men’s? In a search to find out answers to the above questions, the Consumer Affairs Bulletin found the following:

SAMHSA Grants to Address Women with Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Disorders Who Have Histories of Violence. This spring, SAMHSA announced the availability of grants to study effective strategies of meeting the needs of women, age 18 and above, with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse problems, who have histories of physical and/or sexual abuse. Phase one of this two-phase project will be looking at two basic questions: 1) what constitutes an integrated system of care for women with co-occurring problems who are victims of violence, and for their children; and 2) what are the most promising services intervention models for this population, and what is the rationale for their selection? Phase two will be a full-scale implementation of integrated strategies, service intervention models and outcome evaluation. Up to 12 sites and a coordinating center will be funded.

SAMHSA Women, Children and Families Team. The SAMHSA Women, Children and Families Team, headed by the Associate Administrator for Women’s Services, is the first Public Health Service agency to have such an effort mandated by law. Located in the Office of Policy and Program Coordination in the Office of the SAMHSA Administrator, the team is the central focus for women’s issues within SAMHSA, providing leadership, guidance, and coordination within the Agency with regard to substance abuse and mental health service needs for women, children and families.

Through the internal Coordinating Committee for Women’s Services (composed of the three SAMHSA center directors, and/or their designees), the team has identified six priority issue areas for women: 1) physical and sexual abuse of women; 2) women as mothers and caretakers; 3) multiple diagnoses; 4)HIV/AIDS/sexually transmitted diseases/tuberculosis; 5) issues affecting women as they grow older; 6) girls and women involved in the criminal justice system.

In September 1997 SAMHSA hosted the National Conference on Women in Phoenix, Az. The conference included over 600 participants addressing diverse issues related to women’s addictive and mental health needs. SAMHSA plans another conference on women in March 1999. Contact: Acting Associate Administrator for Women's Services, Ulonda Shamwell, M.S.W., SAMHSA,
1 Choke Cherry Road, Room 8-1015, Rockville, MD 20850, t. 240-276-2231, f. 240-276-2240, e. ulonda.shamwell@samhsa.hhs.gov.

Other documents (developed by CMHS-sponsored projects) that address the important health issues of women include:

Having Our Say: Women Mental Health Consumers/Survivors Identify their Needs and Strengths. This booklet, prepared by the University of Illinois (UIC) at Chicago National Research and Training Center on Psychiatric Disability, highlights the major concerns women diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities determined as their own needs. It identifies eight areas of major concern to women: rehabilitation and recovery; parenting; relationships; safety and abuse; vocational services and employment; finances; housing and independent living; and physical health needs. The information in the booklet was compiled from women consumers/survivors who shared their lives with the authors in focus groups and interviews as part of the National Women Consumers/Survivors Needs Assessment. This is a Participatory Action Research Project of the UIC, National Research and Training Center on Psychiatric Disability which is supported by CMHS (SAMHSA), National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and the US Department of Education. A second phase of the Chicago project is to survey women consumers/survivors on a national scope to collect quantitative data regarding their self-identified needs. Women with personal experience in the mental health system are involved in the development and implementation of this national survey. For more information or a copy of the booklet, contact Jessica Jonikas, Edie Bamberger, or Alexandra Laras, at UIC (312)422-8180, or SAMHSA's National Mental Health Information Center see "Where to Turn" .

Women Emerging in the Wake of Violence, by Laura Prescott. This monograph examines the reasons women don’t talk about the circumstances in their lives; the institutional responses that discourage disclosure and damage women by mirroring pre-existing abuse; suggestions for change and; implications for future policy implementation and development. This project was coordinated by the Prototypes Systems Change Center, Improving Mental Health, Substance Abuse, HIV & Trauma Services for Women. For more information or a copy of any of these documents, contact Susan Salasin at CMHS, (301)443-3653.

Breaking the Silence: Violence/Abuse Issues for Women Diagnosed with Serious Mental Illness, by Vivian Brown, Ph.D., June 1997. This paper brings attention to the problems faced by women diagnosed with serious mental illness and women with multiple vulnerabilities. The author states, "Silence, self-blame and forgetting are part of the accommodation process through which victims ‘adjust’ to pressures to ‘forget’ and minimize the abuse. Thus, in order to survive many women have been silenced. This paper is written to break this silence. It reflects the collective voices of consumers/survivors/ex-patients and providers." (See Prototypes information above)

Untreated Physical Health Problems Among Women Diagnosed with Serious Mental Illness by Vivian Brown, Ph.D., June 1997. This sister piece to the paper described above, identifies several key barriers that preclude women diagnosed with serious mental illness from obtaining sensitive and coordinated health care. In addition, it describes elements needed in the mental health system to improve women’s physical health. (See Prototypes information above)

And So I Began to Listen to Their Stories... Working with Women in the Criminal JusticeSystem by Susan Galbraith. This book is about women in the criminal justice system, their children, what hurt, what helped and where we go from here. " It is a look into the lives and experiences of 20 individuals who have a vast amount of experience and information to share with practitioners, policy makers, researchers, women, and their families," stated the author. It was supported by the National Gains Center for People with Co-Occurring Disorders in the Justice System.

Consumer Affairs Bulletin
Volume 3, No. 2, Summer 1998