Actions the College will take to improve women's mental health care in the UK
View the RCPsych's action plan setting out what the College will do to drive improvements in women's mental health care in the UK.
The College is supporting delivery of five national strategic priorities calling on collective action to improve women’s mental health across the UK in the following ways.
1. Embedding equity and lived experience in College work
Aim: Make equity for women measurable, embedded and accountable across RCPsych activity.
a. Launch a Women’s Mental Health Hub on the RCPsych website to share best practice, resources and lived-experience insight
b. Strengthen equity impact considerations across college work including: - consideration of local population demographics at project inception routine disaggregation of research data at RCPsych events (e.g. Congress)
c. Strengthen lived-experience collaboration, building on the College’s revised patient and carer working model, including incorporating learning from the NCCMH Culture of Care approach to co-production
d. Publish findings from the first RCPsych Women’s Mental Health member survey to inform future priorities.
e. Develop and implement a WMH Strategy influencing action plan with defined indicators of progress.
2. Education, training and standards
Aim: To ensure women’s mental health is consistently embedded across education, assessment and CPD.
a. Work with the Dean and Professional Standards to explore integrating WMH strategy priorities into curricula, CASC, CPD, eLearning, Congress and other training events.
b. Ensure the impact of women’s mental health on children is included in the Children’s Charter.
c. Ensure all influencing and college work on suicide, including work from the National Suicide Prevention Alliance (England) and the Support After Suicide Partnership, reflects women-specific risk factors such as domestic abuse, MBBRACE findings and hormonal transitions. Raise awareness of autism in women and girls through our influencing work on neurodevelopmental disorders.
3. Safe, trauma-informed and therapeutic services
Aim: Improve safety and quality of mental health services for women who access and work in them.
a. Renew commitment to phasing out mixed-sex PICUs, including a joint position statement with partners (e.g. NAPICU).
b. Support Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health (POHM) audit-based quality improvement on valproate prescribing and compliance with the Pregnancy Prevention Programme.
c. Build on the legacy of the NCCMH Culture of Care programme’s trauma-informed approach by continuing to champion this and take opportunities to deliver Trauma-Informed Practice resources and training.
d. Disseminate learning from the NCCMH Culture of Care Programme on implementing trauma and autism-informed environment reviews in inpatient settings.
e. Implement the Non-Recent Childhood Sexual Abuse (NRCSA) position statement recommendations about increasing awareness of NRCSA, trauma-informed care, professional training, clinical guidance, service provision and future research.
f. Make better use of existing best practice documents to improve ‘sexual safety in mental health setting’ e.g. NCCMH Sexual Safety Collaborative and communicate with members about this.
g. Provide timely updates to members on professional practice issues relevant to improving safety in mental health settings e.g. NHS England » Improving chaperoning practice in the NHS: key principles and guidance.
4. Preventing and responding to gender based violence (GBV)
Aim: Strengthen clinical capability and system responses to domestic and sexual violence and abuse and related harms.
a Provide timely member updates on best practice, research and data in response to domestic and sexual violence and abuse (e.g. Domestic abuse related deaths-related deaths and non-fatal Strangulation).
b. Update and expand CPD on Domestic Abuse, including responding to perpetrators in mental health settings.
c. Embed a core domestic abuse case study within the Public Mental Health Implementation Centre.
d. Contribute to intercollegiate guidance on Non-Fatal Strangulation (adult and paediatric) and support national implementation. V. Support understanding and response to traumatic brain injury linked to domestic abuse, in partnership with the Neuropsychiatry Faculty.
5. Sexual, reproductive and lifecourse mental health
Aim: Improve mental health outcomes by addressing women’s sexual and reproductive health across the lifecourse.
a. Publish and implement the Menopause Position Statement, including actions to improve practice and close guidance gaps.
b. Use College platforms (e-learning, events including webinars, conferences and International Congress, and MRCPsych examinations) to strengthen life-course-based learning.
c. Host the first joint RCPsych–RCOG conference (2026) and progress plans for a joint learning course.
d. Advocate for research focused on women facing multiple forms of marginalisation.
6. Supporting the workforce – Safety, dignity and retention
Aim: Create safer, more sustainable working environments for psychiatrists.
a. Implement and promote actions as outlined in the Menopause Position Statement through the College’s ongoing workforce influencing
b. Promote awareness and uptake of the RCPsych Retention Charter, specifically on actions related to women
c. Sign up to and promote the NHS Sexual Safety in Healthcare Charter amongst members. To include taking internal actions that can support wider system implementation as well as to strengthening relevant college policy and processes.
d. Improve accessibility of College disciplinary processes for reporting sexual misconduct by members in their college role
e. Advocate for the development of a College position statement and guidance for psychiatrists with complex caring responsibilities.
7. Supporting the workforce – Equity, leadership and representation
Aim: Improve fairness, opportunity and representation across the College.
a. Embed the role of the College Lead for Mental Health Equity to monitor and report progress against EDI KPIs annually.
b. Advocate for the development and implementation of a College policy on equitable representation in College roles, committees and leadership opportunities.