Platform 51

mental health campaign

our research

So many of the women and girls we work with show signs of stress, are depressed or completely lack self-esteem we suspected there was a big problem out there. To find out more about poor mental health in women and girls we carried out some research.

Polling

To get a representative picture of the mental health of girls and women, we commissioned Opinium Research LLP to carry out a nationally representative, quota-controlled survey of more than 2,000 girls and women in England and Wales in October 2010. Respondents were aged 12 upwards and the ranges used in our report are: 12 to 17, 18 to 24, 25 to 44, 45 to 54, 55 to 64 and 65+.

Platform 51 user surveys

Two internal surveys of Platform 51 service users were carried out in January and February 2010. The surveys collected both quantitative and qualitative data. In January nearly 100 women responded to questions about access to health services. In February more than 350 gave their views on questions about services for women only.

Focus groups

In May 2010 more than 100 girls and women aged between 12 and 25 took part in activities, discussions and focus groups at Platform 51 centres. The groups considered:

• what accessible and appropriate health services mean to them and to their female family and friends
• their experiences of health provision and how it could work better for girls and women
• what changes they would make to existing provision
• which organisations and people they turn to for support and why
• the extent and impact of external and societal pressures, as well as other factors, on girls and women today.

In November 2010, more than 70 women aged 18 and over, 58 of who were from black and ethnic minority groups, took part in discussion groups. They focused on the difficult times in their lives, or the lives of their female friends and family members. They talked about how they had been affected and about the things, people and organisations that had supported them. Finally, they considered what else would have helped.

Our research findings were written up into a 24-page report, or check out some of the facts we discovered.