Domestic Abuse

Domestic abuse can be in many forms including physical violence (e.g. slapping, pushing, kicking, punching), psychological or emotional abuse (e.g. verbal abuse and humiliation), financial control (e.g. withholding money, making all of the financial decisions) and coercion or threats (e.g. not allowing friends to visit, restricting of phone calls).

Healthy Relationships and Domestic Abuse

What is a healthy relationship?

Throughout life we develop relationships with lots of different people including close friends, boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s and groups of friends from school or where we live and online.
Healthy relationships are about respecting each other, feeling comfortable and treating each other equally.

In a healthy relationship, you should always feel safe and respected, you should be able to be yourself not pretend to be someone else, you shouldn’t feel controlled or pressured by anyone and you shouldn’t feel threatened or frightened.

Domestic violence teaches children and young people negative things about relationships and how to deal with people.

It can teach them that violence is acceptable conflict resolution, they develop secretive behaviours, children and young people can develop trust issues with those around them and can have a negative impact on their future relationships.

Even after a very short time of being exposed to domestic abuse, Children can become frightened, withdrawn, start bedwetting, they may run away, become aggressive, develop behavioural difficulties and problems with school.