Via Jeff, J4MB: This from the BBC, prompted by a small increase in the female suicide rate in 2014, compared with the previous year. Excerpts:
There is no requirement for the NHS to provide gender-specific mental health services, but its value was recognised by the Department of Health as far back as 2002 in a consultation document called Into the Mainstream, signed off by the then mental health minister Jacqui Smith.
It said: “There will be the need to provide single-sex services in some instances.”
The following year, the Department of Health issued guidance that said: “All organisations should aim to ensure that they are sensitive to gender… and the specific needs of women…
According to official annual figures for the UK, in 2014 the male suicide rate was more than three times higher than the female rate.
However, the female rate increased from 4.8 to 5.2 deaths per 100,000 people while the male rate decreased from 17.8 to 16.8…
The Department of Health said women receive more referrals than men to improving access to psychological therapies services.
More than one million women were in contact with mental health and learning disability services in 2014-15, compared with 829,677 men.