Sexual Health Services Access for Women with Psychiatric Disabilities

Our project is guided by two overarching goals:

1. to develop an understanding of sexual health service access for women with psychiatric disabilities (refers to cisgender, trans and gender-queer women with mental health issues and/or personal experiences of psychiatric, mental health, or addiction services), and
2. to create evidence-informed recommendations for enhancing access to equitable, quality sexual health services for this group.

Community engagement is important to us. At the outset of the project, we hosted a brainstorm event to bring together various community-based health and social service agencies who provide services, support, and advocacy to women with psychiatric disabilities and/or sexual health support to women. In addition to providing valuable insight and direction to our project, this event has enabled us to develop a network of professionals committed to improving the lives of women with psychiatric disabilities.

We are committed to a psychiatric disabilities-informed analysis of women’s experiences that attends to the ways that intersecting identities, such as racialized identities and sexual and gender minority identities, impact access to sexual health services. Using both survey and interview methods, we plan to connect with women with psychiatric disabilities about their sexual health needs, and experiences using mental health and/or sexual health services.

Team Members:

• Andrea Daley, Principal Investigator (School of Social Work, York University)
• Lucy Costa, Principal Investigator (The Empowerment Council)
• Lori Ross, Co-Investigator (Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto)
• Lauren Munro, Project Coordinator

Women's College Hospital 15K Challenge:

Funding:

Women’s College Hospital, Women’s Xchange Program

Project Outcomes:

• Access to sexual health services for women with psychiatric disabilities