ABSTRACT
Palliative care approaches for people experiencing mental health difficulties advocate for a compassionate, individualised and whole systems approaches to supporting people with long-standing and complex experiences. This chapter explores the differences between men and women’s mental health and possible causes, advocating that causes should inform the type of support services provide, taking account gender issues. The specific role of trauma and trauma informed approaches to supporting women are discussed. Psychological formulation is proposed as a way to understand difficulties and drive interventions to develop more individualised, holistic and biopsychosocial interventions, which might enhance empathy and understanding, in order to meet the specific needs of women experiencing long term mental health difficulties.
