Women’s Mental Health and Well-Being: (How) Does a Human Rights Perspective Help?

On January 11, 2007 more than 150 women and men participated in a conference exploring “Women’s Mental Health and Well-Being: (How) Does a Human Rights Perspective Help?”

Sponsored by the Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights, the conference brought together academics, clinicians, social service professionals, human rights activists, community organizers and students. It was co-sponsored by Suffolk University’s Departments of Sociology and Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office, S.O.U.L.S., Counseling Center, and by the Offices of Diversity Services, Student Retention, and Financial Aid.

A human rights perspective on women’s mental health and well-being clarifies that available, affordable, acceptable and personally and culturally appropriate treatment is a crucial human right. Pushing this idea further, the notion that mental health – and not only mental health treatment – is a core human right emerged throughout the presentations. Speakers argued that public conversations regarding mental health tend to be limited to how best or most equitably treat women suffering from mental illnesses or disturbances. However, it is equally important to address and rectify the social and cultural structures that damage women’s mental (and physical) health and to understand and reinforce those structures that enhance women’s health. Further, knowing one’s human rights can be a crucial component of good mental health for women, contributing to resilience and helping to challenge victimization.

Evelyn Barbee, a nurse and anthropologist, raised these concerns regarding the mental health experiences of Black women, pointing out that racism in and of itself is a cause of depression. Jamie Fellner, executive director of Human Rights Watch U.S. Program, and Linda Piwowarczyk, medical director of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights similarly noted that large majorities of women both in prison and in refugee camps have experienced sexual violence and struggle with the emotional and health repercussions of these events.  Sukanya Ray, associate professor of psychology at Suffolk University and a clinician in the Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School, spoke of the difficulty immigrant and refugee women have accessing culturally appropriate mental health services once they arrive in the United States.

According to Massachusetts State Representative Ruth Balser, 95% of women in Massachusetts prisons are mentally ill and/or substance abusers, yet there is a severe shortage of appropriate mental health care in prisons. Both prisons and refugee camps function as holding places for women who have been traumatized. Unfortunately, and often despite good intentions of social service workers, practices in these settings further traumatize women residents. For example, women incarcerated in the United States typically have their children taken away from them. For many women, the loss of their children constitutes a mental health crisis that exacerbates other mental health issues that led to the incarceration in the first place.

The model that emerged over the course of the presentations highlights the interdependence of mental health and human rights. On the one hand, human rights violations such as rape may trigger mental illness for women. Then, mental illness sets women up for situations and settings – such as prison – in which their human rights are especially likely to be violated. On the other hand, support for the full range of women’s human rights protects and enhances women’s mental health and well-being.

View the event poster or the event postcard.