Ryan, Paul and McGarry, Kathryn and Leacy, 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. ISSN 2639-5355

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Abstract

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 prose-cute 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 dis-close their sex work.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	gender policy; sexuality;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Item ID:	19141
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1002/sgp2.12112
Depositing User:	Paul Ryan
Date Deposited:	31 Oct 2024 16:37
Journal or Publication Title:	Sexuality, Gender & Policy
Publisher:	Wiley
Refereed:	Yes
Funders:	Health Service Executive National Officeof Suicide Prevention, Ireland
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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