Partnership crisis house inspires service in Mallorca | News

Our Partnership's Drayton Park women's crisis house, which provides services for women in acute mental health crisis, has inspired the opening of a similar shelter more than a thousand miles away in Spain.
 
The founders of Casa Violeta, which opened earlier this year in Mallorca, visited Drayton Park in 2019. Impressed by the support it offered, it started campaigning for a crisis house in their home city, Inca.
 
As the UK marks White Ribbon Day on November 25 November, the two crisis houses will be uniting in their support for the campaign against male violence towards women and girls.

The Mallorcan service, part-funded by the Balearic government, strives to give women the space and safety they need to feel comfortable opening up about their traumatic experiences.

The collaboration came about after Shirley McNicholas, one of the managers at Drayton Park, visited Madrid in 2019 to speak about Drayton Park’s acute trauma-informed model at a conference for mental health professionals.

Xisca Morell, who works for a mental health organisation called 3 Salut Mental read about her presentation; she then contacted Shirley and visited Drayton Park for three days. Above is a picture taken at Drayton Park during the visit.

Xisca, now the manager of Casa Violeta, said: “We got all the answers we needed so that we could then feel ready to do it after those three days. And we did it!”

She said women have described Casa Violeta as a “miracle”. They appreciate being able to help shape the care they receive, to rest and to reconnect with themselves physically and mentally.

A trauma-informed service is one which acknowledges the impact of trauma and seeks to deliver its service with this in mind. This includes tailoring the therapeutic work service users engage in and the environment in which this work takes place.

“We shared all our policies and experiences with Xisca and her colleagues,” Shirley said. “The result of this has been a service that is very sensitive to what helps women in crisis.”

The London- and Inca-based crisis houses stay in regular contact. Drayton Park women’s crisis house provides a residential acute response for 12 women living in Camden or Islington who are experiencing an acute mental health crisis, as an alternative to hospital admission.