Dones Mentores-Emakume Mentoreak participated with a presentation at the 12th Conference on Gender Violence, organized by Osakidetza (the Basque Health Service), on December 11, 2024 at the Kursaal Conference Center in Donostia-San Sebastián.
This conference was part of an annual series of events on gender violence, organized by Osakidetza on the occasion of November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women), to show its continued commitment to this issue in the field of public health and social services.
The event addressed various aspects of gender violence, through three sessions focussing respectively on emotional distress, support tools, and network intervention. In this last session we presented the Dones Mentores methodology, and we announced our new pilot project on obstetric violence.
The event stressed the importance of putting the gender perspective in the health system at the centre of the public debate, in order to allow women’s ailments to be de-pathologised and to address the relationship between violence against women and its impact on their health.
Mental distress was mentioned as a decisive element for the physical and emotional health of women, as well as the importance of focusing on gender inequalities.
Participants also highlighted the urgent need for a change of perspective within the health sector, working from a biopsychosocial approach that addresses not only the symptoms but also the causes as the key issue within the response system to women’s health.
