Women’s Aid urges domestic abuse priority in response to mental health consultation

A leading women’s charity has called for domestic abuse to be recognised as a public health priority in its response to the Department of Health and Social Care’s consultation on the government’s new mental health and wellbeing plan.

Earlier this year the government asked the public and organisations to contribute to its new plan for providing mental health support in England over the next ten years through its mental health and wellbeing plan. 

The consultation asked for evidence on promoting positive mental wellbeing, preventing mental health conditions, proposals for early intervention and improving the quality and effectiveness of mental health treatment.  

Women’s Aid, which supports survivors of domestic abuse, recommended a range of measures in its consultation response to ensure better support for mental health is available for survivors of domestic abuse.

Its recommendations include: 

• Domestic abuse and its impacts on survivors’ mental health should be recognised as a public health priority
• Requirements for all public services that come into contact with domestic abuse survivors to work collaboratively with specialist domestic abuse services to ensure that survivors are receiving holistic support
• Commitment to ensure sufficient investment in specialist domestic abuse services – both refuge and community-based support
• More research should be undertaken to understand the link between suicide and domestic abuse
• All health care professionals should receive mandatory specialist domestic abuse training to be able to safely ask about domestic abuse, respond to disclosure in a supportive way, and ensure women are able to access the specialist services they need to escape and recover 
• Sustainable funding for translation support and multi-lingual therapists should be guaranteed – research indicates that the availability of sensitive and sympathetic support in appropriate languages with ‘unspoken’ understanding is crucial to enable women to rebuild their lives
• The NHS should be properly resourced to provide longer term and trauma-informed counselling support – survivors want mental health support to be available to them when they need it, without having to face long waiting times 

According to the Office of National Statistics, the police reported 1,459,663 domestic abuse related crimes and incidents in 2021, which was a major increase from the 79,407 that were reported in 2020.

Photo by Sydney Sims