Woman’s Trust calls for greater awareness of mental health impacts of domestic abuse this

Mental Health Awareness Week

• One in four women will experience domestic abuse in their adult lifetime. Without help, the mental health impacts of domestic abuse can last decades and can be life-long and sometimes life threatening. Domestic Abuse can cause low self-esteem, post traumatic stress, depression and suicidal thoughts.

• A recent study by Agenda Alliance found a direct link to female suicide and domestic abuse with women who have experienced violence from a partner being three times more likely to make a suicide attempt in the last year. 
• Woman’s Trust was set up in 1996 to help survivors of domestic abuse rebuild their mental health, through trauma-informed specialist counselling. The Trust has helped 18,000 women rebuild their mental health, since 1996, but they are now turning more and more women away due to lack of capacity. In 2022 they turned away 1,200 women in London. 

• Woman’s Trust is led by an all-female team who are experienced in domestic abuse. It costs £74 for Woman’s Trust to deliver one session of specialist counselling by a trauma-informed counsellor. This is half the price of the session delivered by NHS. Woman’s Trust offers up to 18 weeks of free counselling per client.  

The recent Domestic Abuse Act does not reference the impact that domestic abuse has on women’s mental health.  Domestic Abuse is often seen as a criminal justice issue but it is also a mental health issue.