Charity helping break barriers for patients with FGM
Charity helping break barriers for patients with FGM
03 January 2018
Funding from Imperial Health Charity has enabled specialists, including counsellors, a midwife and a Somali-speaking health advocate to raise awareness about FGM and engage with families to stop the practice being carried out. The team are also setting up patient support groups to help them cope with the psychological impact and providing 1-1 support for those who are particularly traumatised.
Juliet Albert, Specialist FGM Midwife at the Trust, believes one of the biggest challenges is breaking the taboo and getting people to open up about it.
“Imagine you came from a country where maybe in school they never talked about your anatomy. For some of the women we see, it’s the first time they’ve ever talked about it before so there is still a real silence around FGM.”
“It’s very traumatic and talking about it for the first time can bring back a lot of memories that they’ve had to suppress.”
Because it’s rarely talked about, a lot of people don’t know enough about the practice or the detrimental effect it can have on their health. FGM can cause recurring pain, infections, infertility and incontinence. It increases the risk of complications during pregnancy which can be life-threatening for both parent and baby.
The Trust has specialist FGM clinics based at the St Mary’s and Queen Charlotte’s & Chelsea Hospitals and in 2016 Juliet’s team saw over 700 patients with FGM across both sites.
Having a Somali-speaking health advocate is particularly vital as Juliet estimates that 80% of the patients they see are Somali. Prior to the project, staff would need to book a translator which could present its own worries. Sometimes they wouldn’t turn up and other times they wouldn’t know enough about FGM to deal with it in a sensitive manner.
Juliet said: “The health advocate’s not just a translator but they’re somebody who’s from an FGM practising community as well, so they’re kind of a bridge between the clinicians, the healthcare professionals and the community.”
“There’s quite a big gap in understanding about FGM so you have to be quite sensitive to that but on the other hand we’ve got to be really clear about safeguarding girls."
For more information about FGM services at the Trust contact juliet.albert@nhs.net.
