Guidance for multi-agency forums: Mental health
Guidance for multi-agency forums to ensure the appropriate safeguarding of victims of domestic abuse who also experience mental health problems.
Domestic abuse can have a severe and long-lasting impact on mental health and survivors often find it difficult to access the support they need. Victims and survivors with mental ill health are also more likely to have other complex needs. We must see the whole picture for every victim, survivor and family so that everyone can be free to live the lives they want to live.
In the seventh of our Spotlights series, in 2019, we focused on the stories and experiences of victims and survivors of domestic abuse who experience mental health difficulties. We partnered on this Spotlight with AVA – Against Violence and Abuse – a leading UK charity committed to ending gender-based violence and abuse.
About SafeLives’ Spotlights series
Our 2016–2019 Spotlights series shone a light on hidden victims of domestic abuse. We explored the experiences of victim groups who face additional barriers to accessing support, and can feel ‘hidden’ from services. Discover insight from survivors, practitioners, academics and other experts, alongside our own research and data.
Survivor and respondent to Psychological Violence surveyThis is the form of abuse that still haunts me to this day, almost twenty years later. It has impacted my long-term mental health, ability to trust people and have healthy relationships. I was a teenager then and my experience of being gaslighted, manipulated, controlled and emotionally beaten down destroyed me