Nottingham connected
Mojatu in Parliament
11
An analysis of the Tackling FGM Initiative report
by Mental Health Today
FGM survivors with complex mental health needs
may be slipping through the support net provided
by frontline services, a report has claimed.
The final evaluation report in the £2.8 million, 6-year
Tackling FGM Initiative (TFGMI) hailed the programme’s
contribution to understanding the links between
mental health, FGM and prevention efforts, but called
for research to understand whether current service
provision meets the complex needs of survivors.
The TFGMI funded a range of community-based
organisations in about 40 local authorities to explore
and develop best practice in preventing FGM; with
several of the organisations developing projects
to meet the mental health and emotional needs of
survivors.
In the final TFGMI evaluation report it said: “The TFGMI
as a whole has arguably made a real contribution
to understanding the links between mental health,
emotional support and FGM. Current evidence
suggests that there is often a strong mental health
need and that there needs to be better support linking
women into care if they have complex mental health
needs.
“Several projects have included ‘pre-work’ where
women develop an understanding of mental health
services before attempts are made to link them into
care. The referrals often come through outreach and
not from other frontline services. This strongly suggests
that there is a strong need to build on these models of
care for women affected by FGM.”
The report highlighted three organisations working
with the mental health needs of FGM survivors – the
Dahlia Project in north London, NESTAC in Rochdale,
and ECYPS in Enfield – and concluded that, while the
government has recognised that FGM survivors may
have complex psychological needs, more investigation
is needed to assess whether these needs are being met.
The report was launched alongside TFGMI’s
Communities Tackling FGM in the UK: Best Practice
Guide. The guide identified the following best practice
for mental health service providers:
• Mental health and emotional support as well
as counselling should be provided in multiple
languages
• Individuals providing mental health and emotional
support as well as counselling should be culturally
competent and have a strong understanding of FGM
and the way that various identities – e.g. gender,
race, ethnicity, migration history – can affect how
women understand and relate to their experiences
of FGM
• Individuals providing mental health and emotional
health support as well as counselling should be
adequately trained to provide these interventions.
They should have the relevant qualifications to
enable them to take on this work
• Prior to providing mental health and emotional
support organisations should have established
referral pathways including to accessing specialist
physical health support and to intensive
psychotherapy
• In order to meet the needs of individual women an
intake assessment that asks about language, route
of migration and risk and needs assessment, among
others, is essential
• It is important to provide holistic support services;
including the provision of practical support with
issues women are facing e.g. housing, immigration
etc.
The report warns that lack of funding remains the
single greatest threat to the government’s ambition
of ending FGM in the UK. “Even in areas where local
authorities, public health colleagues, police and others
highly valued FGMI partners, when asked about future
funding intentions it was not evident that funding
needs had even been considered,” the report said.
“This may be because of the lack of clarity on where FGM
‘sits’ and who should be funding it (local authorities,
Health and Well-being Boards, public health or clinical
commissioning groups), as well as the impact of the
cuts of local budgets.”
https://www.mentalhealthtoday.co.uk/fgm-survivors-
with-complex-mental-health-needs-may-be-slipping-
through-support-net-report-claims.aspx