Missing Link’s review of our women’s report

Sarah O’Leary is the CEO of Missing Link, the largest provider of women only services in Bristol and one of the Golden Key partners. We asked her to share her thoughts on our report on Gender and Severe and Multiple Disadvantage and this is her response.

I was really excited to read this report because it resonates with what women have told us over the last 35 years the organisation has been running. Too often women talk about their experiences of historical or recent abuse and how that has had a traumatic impact on their mental health, their safety and the options they have. They have shared with us how mixed services often failed to understand their need for safe women-only spaces and support that specifically recognised their lived experience and the disadvantages they faced.

This report captures these issues and more. It highlights the importance of placing these issues in the context of women’s lives. We know women often have the major responsibility for the caring of children and other dependent family members. Social isolation and poverty are much more common in women, and they are much more likely to be in poorly paid jobs with little security. They are also more likely to have survived multiple traumas. The complex interplay of all these factors have a major impact on the shape of the support services they need, which is why coproducing services with women with lived experience is so important.

We continue to listen to what women tell us and respond by developing new services that meet women’s needs, such as designated safe house and community services for women who are black or an ethnic minority, accommodation for women with multiple disadvantage and Independent Domestic Violence Advocates who work within hospital emergency departments where women with multiple disadvantage often first present. But we know from speaking to women that there are still many barriers they face.

I was pleased to see the report highlight the particular risks of vicarious trauma when working with women who have experienced sexual and domestic abuse. The wellbeing of staff is paramount and as a trauma informed service that listens to women, providing reflective practice, being a mindful employer and management training are essential in delivering quality women led services.

I welcome this report and its findings, conclusions and recommendations. I believe it offers real solutions to addressing the inequality that women face and offers a way forward to effect positive system change.

For more information about Missing Link and their support services for domestic abuse and sexual abuse, please go to: www.nextlinkhousing.co.uk or call 0800 4700280.