‘The difference it makes to somebody by walking through the door’

A Liverpool women’s health charity has recently opened its doors again after spending months without a city centre home, marking the occasion with a bus outside its new city centre premises and a nod to its long history supporting women’s health in Merseyside.

The Women’s Health Information & Support Centre (WHISC) was established 43 years ago, using an outreach bus in its earlier days that travelled around Merseyside to offer health support and information to women, particularly around menopause.

On Monday 19 October, WHISC linked in with World Menopause Day, with the arrival of an Arriva bus parked outside its venue in central Liverpool to raise awareness of women’s health and promote WHISC’s services.

WHISC had been based in Bold Street for 30 years, but after a rent increase of more than double its previous rate, it was forced to move out of the home it had occupied for decades to premises in Tithebarn Street last June. Unfortunately, after ten months they were given notice to leave.

Between March and August this year WHISC was homeless, however dedicated staff continued to support women in the region, using venues from partnership organisations such as London Road’s Central Liverpool Primary Care Network (PCN) and the Quaker Meeting House, as well as community venues in Vauxhall, where it all began for WHISC 43 years ago.

WHISC was recently approached by Arriva to commission staff training around menopause health and in exchange Arriva offered the use of one of its buses to help promote support for women's health and WHISC's new venue.

The new venue is now back in the heart of Liverpool city centre above the Lloyds Bank on Church St and is fully accessible with a lift and a flat entrance. The service offers a drop-in as well as numerous groups and classes, including a Menopause Café, T’ai chi, Wellbeing Crafts, Yoga and Meditation, all of which are free to access.

Women in Liverpool can expect to spend almost 30% of their lives in poor health, with healthy life expectancy around five years below the national average, according to a report into women’s health inequalities released by the council earlier this year.

A Women’s Health Taskforce was established in the city in 2024 and has been looking at the problems women face accessing healthcare and support, including the effects of poverty and caring responsibilities. Its findings were discussed by Liverpool’s Health and Wellbeing Board earlier this year and WHISC is part of the taskforce.

For the team at WHISC, being somewhere women can easily find and visit is an important part of providing that support, and the move back into the city centre is already making a difference.

Director Kirsteen Sheppard said: ‘Since we’ve opened the doors we’ve seen a lot of new women, but also women who used to come to Bold Street that we’ve not seen for a long time, so the location seems to have a very significant impact.’

For many years WHISC had an open-door policy, Sheppard said: ‘When we were in Bold Street, I used to leave the door open… so if someone’s feeling lonely or isolated, it’s a case of being able to walk through the door and have a cup of tea, a hug and a biscuit and speak to somebody.’

Ruth Whitfield, the Wellbeing coordinator, assists with the running of the drop-in, alongside coordinating the Listening Ear service. Listening Ear offers women an appointment to talk to a trained volunteer and women can self-refer to the service or referrals may come from other organisations.

Whitfield explains that for some women a one-off session is enough, but for many others they can be referred on to Whitfield or another caseworker for further support. She said: ‘The idea is for you to identify some goals that you would like to achieve, and it can be anything, like making that phone call you’ve been putting off for six weeks or six months, to just being able to sit with somebody and talk things through.’

The Listening Ear service is available Monday to Friday and offers an initial 45 minute appointment which can be arranged very quickly. There is also a monthly poetry group and weekly reading group that Whitfield facilitates, where those attending are read to by Whitfield before participants discuss the texts.

‘It’s very mindful and in the moment’ Sheppard said, adding: ‘It’s almost like a hug at bedtime; you’re given something that will remind people of things.’ Whitfield said they are very popular groups where participants feel nurtured and which elicit a lot of thoughtful conversation and different interpretations of the texts.

WHISC has had a challenging couple of years, with changes to its staff and board alongside the upheaval of moving premises. Council funding has also fallen over the years, leaving the charity increasingly reliant on grants, donations and volunteers to keep its services running. WHISC employs just seven staff members, while many of the professionals running classes, including Muay Thai self-defence and Tai Chi, give their time for free.

Sheppard said: ‘They say it takes a village and our volunteers and the women who come in here, they’re the key to the service.’

Sheppard has worked for WHISC on and off for about eight years in different roles and is now the Director and speaks of her deep commitment to the organisation and the women who use it:

‘Honestly, there isn’t a day that doesn’t go by that I don’t cry in here, because of someone’s kindness or because of something someone says. The testimonials we get are incredibly moving, and the difference it makes to somebody by walking through the door, you know, it’s powerful.’

The new Arriva bus sat outside the venue on Church Street this Monday garnered much-needed attention, leading to dozens of women popping into the service alongside hundreds of WHISC leaflets handed out to passers-by.

It also let the women of Merseyside know that WHISC is still there for them 43 years since its inception. Sheppard said: ‘We hope we’re here for another 43 years’.

*Disclosure: Lisa Rand, who edited today’s story, has volunteered at WHISC.