Dear Dame Lesley,
Congratulations on your appointment earlier this year as the Women’s Health Ambassador. We are pleased to hear that your position has been created by the UK Government and we hope you will use it to champion the voices of domestic abuse survivors and prioritise their health needs.
We would like to invite you to speak at the launch of a survivor film we have created, and ask you to meet with us to discuss how we can ensure that the Women’s Health Strategy reflects the needs of survivors. We would appreciate it if you could meet with us regularly so we can keep you informed of our work with Women’s Aid and to ensure that survivors are centred in your work.
Below we have set out our hopes for your role in relation to domestic abuse:
- You will work with the Government to deliver an action plan, setting out key metrics and milestones to deliver on the ambitions of the Women's Health Strategy
- You will champion the voices of domestic abuse survivors and their children and ensure that their voices are centred through all health policy. This will include having regular engagement with survivors and listening to their experiences.
- You will work with the Violence Against Women and Girls sector to ensure that the mental health needs of survivors and their children are met, including by ensuring a range of therapeutic and holistic mental health support.
- You will showcase good practice within the VAWG and health sectors.
- You will explicitly recognise domestic abuse as a fundamental driver of women’s mental ill health and work to ensure that it remains a public health priority for the Government.
- You will understand the importance of taking both a gendered and intersectional approach to your new role. You will recognise the additional barriers that face women who experience multiple forms of oppression and the importance of ensuring sustainable funding for services run by and for Black and minoritised women – which are uniquely placed to meet their health needs.
We hope you will meet with us soon to explore this with you, and to count on your support for our Deserve to be Heard campaign.
With very best wishes,
The Deserve To Be Heard campaign Survivor Advisory Board