The long-term impact of domestic abuse
Domestic abuse can have a long-term impact – it’s not simply a case of leaving the relationship and the abuse ends. The impact of the trauma resulting from domestic abuse can be far reaching for physical and mental health and well-being; the practical implications, especially in terms of finance, can also be significant.
That is why Safe in Sussex offers recovery programmes for those who have left an abusive relationship and can link clients in with a variety of other services who can support them in dealing with the multiple impacts of abuse.
Here are just a few of the shocking figures which evidence the long-term impact of domestic abuse and why it is so important that there is a system wide approach to ending domestic abuse.
- Women’s Aid research found that women who have faced extensive violence and abuse are more than twice as likely as other women to live in poverty. Findings endorsed by research for the Agenda Alliance which found around half of women (47%), who are unemployed or are unable to work due to sickness or disability, have experienced domestic abuse from a partner.
- Women who have experienced domestic abuse are more than twice as likely to have an alcohol problem and eight times more likely to be drug dependent than women with little experience of violence and abuse.
- Abused women are three times more likely to be diagnosed as depressed and are 5 times more likely to die by suicide.
- 1 in 3 homeless women said domestic abuse contributed to their homelessness.
- In the 2018-19 Crime Survey of England and Wales more than half of respondents reported that domestic abuse had had a sustained impact on their mental health and emotional well-being.
- More than half of women in prison in England report having experienced emotional, physical or sexual abuse as a child and 57% report having experienced domestic abuse as an adult.
References
The impact of domestic abuse – Women’s Aid
Alcohol and domestic abuse | Alcohol Change UK
New Figures Reveal Link Between Suicidal Thoughts and Domestic Abuse – Agenda Alliance
BASW Poverty Social Inequality and Domestic Abuse
Homelessness and domestic abuse spotlight – SafeLives
“There’s a reason we’re in trouble” – Domestic abuse as a driver to women’s offending | Prison Reform Trust