16 Days Of Action- Against Domestic Abuse 2023

November 27, 2023

To continue with awareness raising during the 16 Days of Action: Domestic Abuse as an Issue for Health Services.

Domestic Abuse can be physical, sexual, violent, threatening, controlling, coercive, economic, psychological and emotional.

Domestic Abuse can take place in intimate partner relationships- heterosexual, same sex and following separation, family relationships, child to parent abuse and multiple relatives where there is ‘honour-based’ abuse.

Abuse can be a single event or ongoing course of behaviour.

Children who see, hear or experience the effects of domestic abuse are defined as victims in law.

Whilst both men and women can be affected by domestic abuse, women are disproportionately the victims.

There are groups of people within the population who data has identified as being more vulnerable to DA:

•Pregnant women (for 30% of women who experience domestic abuse, the first event occurs during pregnancy)

•New mothers

•People age 55+

•Young people

•Disabled people (twice as many disabled women have experienced domestic abuse compared to non-disabled women)

•Where there are additional barriers to disclosing, reporting or accessing support (e.g. LGBTQ+ communities, women with no recourse to public funds, language barriers, cultural isolation)

•People with mental health disorder (women experiencing DA are three times more likely to have a mental health diagnosis)

•People with higher rate of drug and/or alcohol misuse

This means that anyone receiving care or employed by the Trust could be impacted by DA.

To access Domestic Abuse Training on ESR: 000Domestic Violence and abuse.

For information on Safeguarding support within the organisation and links to services offering specialist advice, see Safeguarding Children on Connect.

Safeguarding numbers: Children:0121 507 2844, Adults: 0121 507 5174

MASH: 0121 569 7223

IDVA: City 0121 507 4829, Sandwell 0121 507 3787