Van Mens-Verhulst's interest has extended from sex/gender differences to multiple social differences in health care, i.e. diversity. Already in 2001 she developed the PhD-course 'Health and Care from a Diversity Perspective’, and in 2007 (together with dr. Marrie Bekker from Tilburg University) the post-academic course for professionals `Gender- and Ethnicity Competence in Mental Health Care'. In 2002 she presented seven stepping stones for diversity research in a keynote speech at the 3rd Gender & Health conference in Vienna .
In recent years, she cooperated with Prof. Lorraine Radtke, in research on the intersection of gender and age. See Women's Identities and the Third Age and Radtke, H.L., Young, J. & Mens-Verhulst, J. van (2016). Aging, Identity, and Women: Constructing the Third Age. Women & Therapy. (forthcoming).
During more than a decade the psychosocial aspects of chronic illness and diversity were an important part of her research activities. One of the topics was the social distribution of fatigue, its progression in individuals and the ways of coping they find. Other topics were the survival strategies of mothers with a chronic illness and of men and women with complaints of depression.
From 1998 until 2002 she has been the Dutch consultant of the project 'Forgotten Women on Farms' (in South Africa), subsidised by the South-African – Netherlands Development Research programme on Alternative Developments (SANPAD), and directed by dr. Lou-Marie Kruger of Stellenbosch University. Its aim was to develop a better understanding of the stress experienced by these disadvantaged women and their resilience.
Another diversity project has been “Aspiring to Healthy Living” that aimed to develop, execute and evaluate a public health programme for healthy living for older Dutch and Moroccan men and women; a programme in which diversity, empowerment and art of living were the underlying principles.