The Tasmanian Government is currently developing its new mental health strategy, Rethink and Beyond 2026–2031 — an opportunity to build a system that is genuinely trauma-informed, evidence-based, and responsive to the needs of vulnerable Tasmanians.
Women Speak Tasmania has made a formal submission to the consultation process, focusing specifically on the mental health needs of women and girls.
Our message is simple: women and girls cannot be properly supported if mental health policy ignores biological sex, downplays the impact of male violence, or replaces sex-based approaches with gender-neutral models that fail to recognise female vulnerability and trauma.
Women’s Mental Health and Male Violence
Any serious mental health strategy must confront one uncomfortable reality: male violence is a major driver of women’s mental ill-health.
Tasmania Police data consistently show that most family violence offenders are male and most victims are female. Nationally, domestic violence, sexual violence, coercive control, and abuse continue to contribute directly to anxiety, depression, PTSD, suicidality, and long-term psychological trauma among women.
Too often, policy discussions focus only on treatment after harm has occurred. A genuinely trauma-informed strategy must also recognise prevention and the importance of safety, privacy, dignity, and stability in women’s recovery.
Why Single-Sex Services Matter
Many women recovering from male violence need female-only spaces to feel safe enough to heal. This can be especially important in inpatient wards, crisis accommodation, prisons, bathrooms, sleeping facilities, and therapeutic programs.
Women Speak Tasmania is increasingly hearing concerns from women and frontline workers that some services are moving toward “gender-neutral” approaches without properly considering the impact on female patients with trauma histories.
This is not about hostility toward anyone. It is about recognising that trauma-informed care must take account of sex-based vulnerability and the realities of male violence. For some women, clear boundaries and female-only environments are essential components of recovery.
Accurate Data Matters
Another major concern is the growing loss of accurate sex-based data collection.
If biological sex is no longer consistently recorded, Tasmania risks losing the ability to properly track violence patterns, mental health outcomes, offending data, and female-specific vulnerabilities. Good policy depends on accurate information.
Collecting biological sex data does not prevent treatment of gender-diverse individuals. Both can coexist. But without sex-disaggregated data, it becomes harder to identify where women and girls are being failed by the system.
The Growing Mental Health Crisis Among Girls
One area requiring particularly careful attention is the sharp rise in gender distress presentations among adolescent girls and young women, many of whom present with complex mental health needs, including trauma histories, autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, depression, and body-image distress.
International evidence reviews are increasingly calling for caution and more comprehensive psychological assessment in this area. Recent findings from Finland, alongside the UK Cass Review, highlight the need for long-term evidence and holistic approaches for vulnerable young people experiencing gender distress.
Tasmania’s mental health strategy should prioritise careful assessment, exploratory psychological support, and broader mental health care that fully addresses underlying distress and co-occurring conditions.
Girls Are Growing Up in Harmful Online Environments
Women Speak Tasmania is also concerned about the impact of highly sexualised online culture on girls’ mental health.
Young women today are navigating constant social-media comparison, pornography exposure, unrealistic body-image standards, and intense pressure around identity and appearance. These influences are contributing to rising levels of anxiety, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and emotional distress.
Mental health policy cannot ignore the wider cultural environment shaping young people’s wellbeing. Prevention should include resilience-building, healthy relationship education, media literacy, and stronger protections for children online.
A Mental Health Strategy That Recognises Reality
Women Speak Tasmania supports the Government’s goal of building an accessible, and trauma-informed mental health system.
But we must include honesty about the realities women and girls face.
Biological sex matters in healthcare. Trauma matters. Safety matters. Accurate data matters.
Policies that minimise sex-based realities risk weakening support for the very people most affected by violence, trauma, and mental ill-health.
Tasmania now has an opportunity to build a mental health strategy that genuinely protects vulnerable women and girls while remaining evidence-based, respectful, and clinically responsible.
We urge the Government to ensure women’s voices — and women’s realities — are not overlooked in that process.