Jeanette Copperman is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the Open University. As a community worker and mental health activist, she was a founder member of the National Women and Mental Health Network and campaigned about women’s mental health issues including sexual assault within psychiatric settings. She has written about sexual violence within the mental health system. Her most recent research focuses on the history of women’s mental health activism including a funded oral history of Bristol Crisis Service for Women (www.womenlisteningtowomen.org.uk). She is currently setting up a dedicated collection at Bishopsgate Institute (www.bishopsgate.org/archives) to bring material about women’s mental health projects and activism together.