The WHMAN serves women who require mental health and addiction services because they have experienced various forms of violence such as, partner abuse, adult sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse/incest, torture, and/or trauma as a result of the movement, and migration, or diaspora migration patterns that force women away from their established or ancestral country of origin due to gender-based violence. The research shows that many services lack a trauma informed and gender based lens and while well intentioned, may exacerbate trauma rather than facilitate recovery.“I would like more help individually” – ParticipantThe research indicates that women who have experienced violence are twice as likely to not receive needed mental health care as those with no violence history (Lipsky & Caetano 2007). Often women are denied service, referred elsewhere for services or put on a waiting list without having their needs triaged; thereby the system loses large numbers of women. Further, although women’s counselling services across the city are striving to coordinate their services through the WMHAN there is currently not a formal process in place for providing women who experience violence and trauma with a commonly understood pathway to counselling services. Additionally, women from marginalized communities, especially Aboriginal women and those with precarious housing, find traditional services inaccessible. Our network strives to fix this.“I’m learning to use several of the self-care methods that I hadn’t considered before…”- Participant“I am learning that that I am not alone.” – Participant
