Abstract
Clinical recovery may vary gender-wise across various psychiatric disorders; however, personal recovery is individual specific and a unique process. There are several gender-specific factors that may determine recovery in the context of women with mental illness such as physical abuse, violence, abandonment, homelessness, stigma, and discrimination. Their access to mental health services and legal aid need to improve. Rehabilitative practices are becoming recovery oriented across the world, albeit slowly. These need to be mindful of the rehabilitation needs of women with mental illness. Motherhood, parenting, and work may be important to consider in a rehabilitative plan for women. Consumer movement, peer support, caregiver groups, and nongovernmental agencies will increasingly play a pivotal role in services that are recovery oriented. Gender-sensitive services and practices should be integrated across all levels of rehabilitative care. Institutional, long stay and forensic settings pose unique challenges in rehabilitation of women with mental illness. In this chapter, we examine the influence of these factors on rehabilitation and recovery of women with mental illness. We also briefly provide a case example of policy and legislative changes from a developing country – India – that are important drivers of improving rehabilitative services for women with mental illness.
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Angothu, H., Jadhav, P., Muliyala, K.P. (2020). Rehabilitation and Recovery of Women with Mental Illness. In: Chandra, P., Herrman, H., Fisher, J., Riecher-Rössler, A. (eds) Mental Health and Illness of Women. Mental Health and Illness Worldwide. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2369-9_38
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