Home Office Definition:

• Home Office Definition
• Help Lines
• Useful Numbers
• Good Practice
• The Facts
• What is Domestic Abuse?

“Any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality”

Useful Numbers:

Help lines:

• Child-line: 08001111
• Out -of –hours Housing 0191 232 8520
• Housing Advice centre 0191 261 0074
• Legal Advice , Newcastle Law Centre 0191 230 4777
• Social Services 0191 232 8520
• Samaritans 0845 7909090
• NSPCC: 0808 8005000
• Police: If in immediate danger ring 999
• Elder Abuse: 02087657000

• Newcastle Women’s Aid: 0191 265 2148
• Victim Support Newcastle: West: 0191 2744274
• East: 2764080
• Northumberland
• Victim Support: 01670 822334
• Cease 24 01668 283224
• Sixty/Eighty/Thirty: 01434 608030
• North Tyneside
• Avenues Women Ltd: 0191 200 8590
• Mankind (male victims) 0870 794 4124
• Broken Rainbow (same sex relationships) 07812644914

If you require further information then please follow the links at the top of this page or contact Rev Jean Skinner or any one of the Group Members.

Good Practice Responses to Domestic Abuse

It is crucial that all decision making is left to the victim of domestic abuse. Because they are likely to be at a low ebb, decision making may be difficult for them but if we take decisions for them we are likely to reinforce the control that the perpetrator has already been exercising over them. In addition the risk is to them and no one else has the right (or the insight) to decide for them. Our task is to support them through this decision making process and then through implementing the decisions taken. Whatever we do we MUST NOT challenge the abuser in any way since this will inevitably put the victim at greater risk of abuse.

• DO give priority to ensuring their immediate safety
• DO recognise their need for a positive response and your support
• DO ensure that if you promise to do something, you carry it out. You may well be a lifeline and to be let down will be very destructive. Conversely DONOT promise to do something which you cannot or are not sure you can carry through.
• DO be sensitive to, and discuss their fears
• DO take them seriously
• DO reassure them that the abuse is not their fault
• DO remember that their problems may be compounded by racist reactions, language and cultural barriers; or other reactions to their age, sexuality or disability
• DO remember that their options may be limited by lack of access to resources
• DO consult with specialist agencies and individuals
• DO check that it is safe to send them letters or to phone them at home and if not find a safe way to be in contact with them if they want

CONFIDENTIALITY IS CRUCIAL!

• DO respect their wishes if they don’t want you to make contact at all
• DO find out what they want and see if you can help them achieve it
• DO discuss the situation and any options open to them
• DO help them explore ways of maximising their safety, whether they leave or not
• DO find out what other agencies have to offer and let them know
• DO take personal responsibility when referring them elsewhere
• DO keep in contact, if at all possible
• DO let them know that they don’t have to leave home to get help
• DO NOT contact the abuser. At all times be aware of your own safety. You will not help if you become a victim of abuse yourself.

What is Domestic Abuse?

It can be physical, sexual, psychological or emotional abuse. Financial abuse and social isolation are also common features.

• While women are more often the victims, a significant number of men also experience domestic abuse (see statistics).
• It can happen to anyone and in any kind of relationship – heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and between parents/offspring. Domestic abuse is non-discriminatory and people suffer regardless of their social group, class, age, race, disability, sexuality or lifestyle.
• The abuse can begin at any time – in new relationships or after many years spent together. It often starts when a woman gets pregnant.
• The abuse and abuse can be actual or threatened and may happen once every so often or over many years.
• Children are affected by domestic abuse both in the short and long term.
• All forms of abuse come from the abuser’s desire for power and control.

The Facts

Domestic Abuse affects at least 25% of the population of the United Kingdom at some stage of their lives often with destructive effects on their physical, emotional and spiritual well being. Government tells us that 3 million children witness domestic abuse each year and the 2005 Children Act recognises that this can constitute Significant Harm and is therefore child abuse.

• 1 woman in 3 experiences domestic abuse at some stage in her life
• 1 man in 6 experiences domestic abuse at some stage in his life
• 1 in 4 same sex relationships experience domestic abuse at some stage in their lives

The Church cannot stand aside from this. There is all too much evidence that Domestic Abuse is found within churches as well as within the communities in which they are set. A church which proclaims its concern for justice, for the down trodden, the victim and the sufferer has not only to take notice but to work in every way it can to combat this evil which has been hidden among us for so long.