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And life after domestic abuse?

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report on needs of women who have escaped domestic abuseWomen need support that extends far beyond any refuge stay.

A new report from the Child and Women Abuse Studies Unit  (CWASU) and Solace Women’s Aid looks in depth at the long-term needs of domestic abuse survivors and their families.

In a first of its kind for Europe, a three-year study tracked 100 women as they attempted to rebuild their lives after domestic violence.

Common assumptions would have us believe that leaving an abusive man is the final step in a woman’s experience of domestic abuse. Sadly this is not the case.

Women need support that extends far beyond any refuge stay.

The practical and emotional support needs of women have to be met by policy makers and funders.

Which means they have to understand the needs of women and their children.

Liz Kelly, director of CWASU, said: “That 90 per cent of the sample experienced post separation abuse shows that leaving violent men does not make women and children safe.

“Specialist support and the women’s own ongoing safety work was more effective here than interventions of statutory agencies.”

After separation women can receive a number of interventions from a variety of statutory agencies: the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the probation services, Social Services, children and family courts services, health professionals, housing officers… the list goes on.

But the report found that, aside from some dedicated individuals, the structural responses offered by these services can be lacking in any solid understanding of the range of behaviours that constitute domestic abuse.

Women reported being paranoid and scared of the very statutory services that in theory are designed to support and protect them.

Key to women’s recovery is the ability to build and grow strong feelings of independence and safety.

These can take years to develop after the women’s experiences of coercion and control, but the report makes a convincing argument that any individual women’s best efforts are being limited by policies that increase poverty and insecure housing.

Cuts to legal aid, the ‘bedroom tax’ and universal credit are all cited as negatively impacting a woman’s ability to build a new life for herself and her children.

The report describes for policy makers and commissioners the holistic cross-cutting services that are needed so that women can be offered full support, widening the focus from lowering risk and homicide reduction to include providing true reparative care.

For those in specialist women’s services these will feel familiar: counselling, peer support and group work, networks of trusted friends with an understanding of domestic violence, advocacy in health and housing, access to legal information and solicitors, employment support and CV writing, and family and parenting programmes to support the children.

To download the full report click here.

The specialist services have known all this since the 1970s; let’s hope that our commissioners and funders pay attention to and act on the recommendations made in this report.

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