Ryan, Paul and McGarry, Kathryn and Lacey, Becky and Leahy, Patricia (2024) “I don't think I can help you anymore.” Sex workers' experiences of accessing mental health services in Ireland. Sexuality, Gender & Policy, 7, (4), pp. 366-381. https://doi.org/10.1002/sgp2.12112.
External website: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sgp2.1...
This paper is based on a study funded by the National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP), exploring sex worker mental health through a qualitative study of eighteen sex workers living and working in the Republic of Ireland and with participants from service provider organizations. This paper utilizes and adapts the concept of minority stress to explain how it is the social world that contributes to difficulties in managing mental health, not just for the LGBTQ+ community but explicitly for sex workers, through intersectional stigma and discrimination. Ireland introduced the Criminal Law Amendment Act (2017) based on the Nordic model of client criminalization, which sought to prosecute those that purchase sex while reducing the legal culpability of sex workers. The paper explores how the mental health of sex workers living and working under the law is impacted and the difficulties negotiating access to mental health services once participants disclose their sex work.
G Health and disease > State of health > Mental health
G Health and disease > Substance related disorder > Substance related mental health disorder > Dual diagnosis / comorbidity (mental health)
J Health care, prevention, harm reduction and treatment > Health related issues > Health information and education > Communicable / infectious disease control > Safe sex / sexual health
J Health care, prevention, harm reduction and treatment > Type of care > Mental health care (Psychiatry / Psychology)
MA-ML Social science, culture and community > Sociocultural discrimination > Prejudice (stigma / discrimination)
MM-MO Crime and law > Public order offence / social code crime > Prostitution / sex-work
T Demographic characteristics > Homosexual, gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, LGBTQI
VA Geographic area > Europe > Ireland
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