Policy Into Practice: Keeping On Track (PIPKOT)
The Core Work with Women aims to support women to speak for themselves about what is important to them, including wider issues of ward management and failures of the system to address the needs of women in all aspects of treatment and care. WISH will advocate when necessary, and works in partnership with secure service providers to ensure that there is a formal feedback procedure set out as part of a formal agreement. WISH is able to work in this way by building consistent and sustainable relationships. WISH is currently developing its national structure to operate a more effective tracking system for women; ensuring that women can get ongoing support from women they know and trust and who they know respect them.
Core work with women takes place in High, Medium and Low Secure Units, and within Holloway Prison, where funding has been obtained to take this work forward. Links are also being made with Styal and other prisons. WISH is currently carrying out research into Prisons and Mental Health to look at how the services that WISH provides in Secure Hospitals interfaces with the Criminal Justice System, and develop a strategy to take forward the work in Prisons. It is recognised that women prisoners are far more likely to be identified as having mental health care needs prior to being sent to prison and experience mental health problems in prison; there is a high prevalence of mental health needs among women prisoners on remand.
The Core work of WISH also informs the campaigning role of the organisation. WISH was instrumental in ensuring that women’s views were represented in the development of The National Strategy for Women’s Mental Health: Into the Mainstream, Strategic Development of Mental Health Care for Women, and we continue to represent women’s views at a policy level, most recently in the following:
· Draft Mental Health Act provided written evidence
·
National
Enquiry into Self-Harm
·
Cross
party government committee On the Management of Violence and Aggression in
Mental Health Services impact on woman.
·
NICE
Trauma Guidelines and NICE Compulsive Disorders Guidelines
·
The
Sainsbury Centres work on Women and Mental Health
·
London
Development Centre NIMHE
·
Conference
on Prison Mental Health Good Practice event.
·
National
pilot for 3 women’s high support community services
· The Audit of Care Standards for Women’s Services