“But How Do I Know I Can Trust You?”: Clinical Care for Women With Serious Mental Illness

Abstract
Women with serious mental illness (SMI) face numerous challenges as their experience of SMI intersects so often with other multiple oppressive experiences making their challenges complex and nuanced. Many of the challenges they face relate to also experiencing homelessness, poverty, trauma, relationship issues and intimate partner violence, parenting, and forms of oppression such as sexism, racism, classism, and stigma. When individuals experience intersectionality of oppressive experiences the research shows this is a more fused and additive experience than a singular challenging experience. Though there are many disparities women with SMI experience, there is still so much growth for the mental health field as we seek to discern these unique concerns for women with SMI, adequately address them from multiple aspects, offer treatment that is gender responsive, trauma-informed, and recovery-oriented, and change systems of care over time so these women can be best supported in their recovery.
Keywords: women; serious mental illness; trauma-informed care; gender-responsive care; recovery-oriented care