"Man Up" campaign by SafeIreland

py2006 wrote: »

Don't be silly, spill

Vetting? What Vetting?

In 2017, Welsh grandmother Anne O’Regan complained to the EHRC (Equality and Human Rights Commission) about the Dyn Project, a Welsh domestic abuse service for men operated by Safer Wales and supported by the Welsh Government. She complained that the service was discriminating against men by subjecting callers to a vetting procedure, something not done for female callers to similar helplines. Despite the complaint being directed through her Welsh Assembly member, the EHRC’s initial reaction was that there was no basis for the complaint. The EHRC Wales Commissioner’s office initially replied,

“The Dyn Project provides support to Heterosexual, Gay, Bisexual and Trans men who are experiencing Domestic abuse from a partner. The Dyn Project has developed five guiding principles for its work with men. These include that a clear screening protocol is essential in order to identify, and respond appropriately, to counter-allegations. Screening is not commonplace within services for women because women constitute the overwhelming majority of those abused.”

High Court told daughter poses 'serious risk' to mother's life
Updated / Wednesday, 9 Sep 2020 15:58

The court heard the matter was taken very seriously by gardaí and state agencies and it was felt the teenager's mother should be re-housed outside her current county.

There is a prior history of assault and sexual violence in the case and an incident earlier in 2019 led to the woman's admission to special care.

Charities dealing with men who suffer domestic abuse have seen pleas for help jump by up to 60% during the lockdown.

The Respect Men's Advice Line said some victims had told them they had sought refuge by sleeping in cars or in tents in the gardens of friends or relatives.

Joyce Fegan: Covid-19 did not cause the surge in domestic violence
We are all more stressed because of Covid-19, but that cannot be blamed for the increase in domestic and sexual violence

In the context of a debate in the House of Commons on the Domestic Abuse Bill (on which I have posted previously) the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability, Victoria Atkins, made this statement,

“…of the 2 million victims, we estimate that around 1.3 million are female and around 695,000 are male, and within that 695,000 we believe – it is very difficult to identify this, and there are problems in doing so – that the majority of perpetrators are male.”

isolation unit run by the HSE and Safetynet Primary Care

The Dublin centre, in operation since May, provides shelter to some of the most vulnerable people who may have contracted Covid-19 or need somewhere to self-isolate. Its residents include members of the Roma and Travelling community, women in domestic abuse situations, refugees who have arrived through family reunification, Irish people who have been repatriated home but don’t have anywhere to stay and people sleeping rough.

One in five young [female*] people aged 25 or younger have experienced abuse by a current or former partner, a study commissioned by Women’s Aid has found.

For men, one in 11 reported experiencing some form of abuse by a current or former partner. The research, conducted by RedC on behalf of the domestic abuse charity, surveyed a representative sample of 500 people aged between 18 and 25.

Sarah Benson, chief executive of Women’s Aid, said the findings were “stark and disturbing”.

“It is a heavily gendered phenomenon. It is particularly women who suffer at the hands of male partners or former partners,” she said.

"we feared these realities would arise for some women and some families in difficult situations where the use of alcohol and so on would become a domestic rather than a public thing".

iptba wrote: »

(UK)

The Male Psychology Conference, 2019

[..]

Mark Brooks OBE (Chairman of Mankind Initiative), “Male friendly services for DV”: I’ve heard Mark talk probably half a dozen times, but this was particularly good. Mankind Initiative now has a contract from the Home Office to deliver training to all police forces on how to handle DV against male victims. Mark gave us a quick run-through of the headline stats on DV which I won’t repeat fully as readers will be familiar with most of them. 11% of male victims compared with 7.2% of female victims attempt suicide. Mankind Initiative had 1400 male callers in 2018 and 500 female callers calling on behalf of a man (reading these stats approximately off a graph). The number of callers increased when the availability of the helpline was increased (to 2 staff). Despite that, 25% of callers were unable to get through. Hence, the indication is that demand is still exceeding capacity. Average call length 33 minutes. Over half had never told anyone before. 69% would not have called had the service not been anonymous. 97% involved a female perpetrator. Average age 43 (range 20 to 81). Average duration of abuse 6 years (longest 20 years). 64% involved physical abuse. 92,704 people had accessed the web site last year, with 198,221 page hits.

http://empathygap.uk/?p=2889

Alex Skeel’s story, “Abused By My Girlfriend”*, is still on iPlayer as of 22/6/19 and was strongly recommended by Mark. He noted that whenever there was a documentary like this, or a DV storyline on a soap, the number of hits on the Mankind Initiative website soars. The Skeel story caused more than a tripling of hits the day after airing. The Mankind Initiative helpline is “manned” by women (in fact all their staff are women). Male DV victims have no difficulty talking to women. (I’ve never thought about this before, but I doubt that women DV victims would be so happy talking to a man – or am I wrong? Woman’s Aid and Refuge, of course, don’t give them that option in any case). Mark noted an increasing number of male survivors of DV are coming forward to offer to volunteer for the charity.

Mark then moved on to the political dimension, referring to the iniquity of male victims being hidden under the VAWG label in the CPS’s annual VAWG reports. Similarly, what message did it send that the mental health of men & boys falls under the Women & Equalities Select Committee? Mark had some hard words to say about the push to get the new DV Bill to include the statement that DV “disproportionately affects women & girls”, backed by the EHRC. But Mark reserved his most intense ire for the 1,384 members of the BPS who voted against having a male psychology section (cf. 2,829 in favour). He said he would like to ask each and every one of them exactly what their motivation could possibly be for voting down the creation of a male section when a female section already existed? I couldn’t agree more. Mark closed with a plea to get “our research” (referring to the whole audience) to the policy makers, the media & civil servants. It’s no good just sounding off into the usual echo chamber. Great talk.

iptba wrote: »

Alex Skeel’s story, “Abused By My Girlfriend”*, is still on iPlayer as of 22/6/19 and was strongly recommended by Mark. He noted that whenever there was a documentary like this, or a DV storyline on a soap, the number of hits on the Mankind Initiative website soars. The Skeel story caused more than a tripling of hits the day after airing. The Mankind Initiative helpline is “manned” by women (in fact all their staff are women). Male DV victims have no difficulty talking to women. (I’ve never thought about this before, but I doubt that women DV victims would be so happy talking to a man – or am I wrong? Woman’s Aid and Refuge, of course, don’t give them that option in any case). Mark noted an increasing number of male survivors of DV are coming forward to offer to volunteer for the charity.

Mark then moved on to the political dimension, referring to the iniquity of male victims being hidden under the VAWG label in the CPS’s annual VAWG reports. Similarly, what message did it send that the mental health of men & boys falls under the Women & Equalities Select Committee? Mark had some hard words to say about the push to get the new DV Bill to include the statement that DV “disproportionately affects women & girls”, backed by the EHRC. But Mark reserved his most intense ire for the 1,384 members of the BPS who voted against having a male psychology section (cf. 2,829 in favour). He said he would like to ask each and every one of them exactly what their motivation could possibly be for voting down the creation of a male section when a female section already existed? I couldn’t agree more. Mark closed with a plea to get “our research” (referring to the whole audience) to the policy makers, the media & civil servants. It’s no good just sounding off into the usual echo chamber. Great talk.

*I found it online here https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x72olk7

Domestic violence: New Garda approach may outlast pandemic
Efforts to tackle abuse during lockdown set to be ‘locked into’ policy, says senior garda

The “overwhelming” majority of domestic violence involves males targeting females but many men are also being victimised and violence within same-sex relationships is coming to the attention of gardaí, a senior detective has said.

“The overwhelming number of complaints come from women; it’s violence by men on women. But there are also many cases when men have come forward and they have been physically assaulted or have been victims of coercive control. They are dealt with in exactly the same way. It’s the same for gay or lesbian relationships, and we get violence within those relationships too of course. We will investigate them all in the same way.”

iptba wrote: »

I mentioned somewhere, maybe on this thread, that being in the “dog house” and being forced to sleep on the couch/similar seems much, much more likely to be done to men than women.

Then a (fictional) programme I was watching yesterday where a man was kicked out of the house by his wife for (though it might only have been “the final straw”) taking the side of his male friend over her female friend (a formerly married couple) in an argument made me wonder how much this happens in real life and whether again a woman is more likely to do this to a man than vice versa? I don’t recall hearing it happening in my circle but then people might not talk about it.

It could happen I suppose via a barring order though that would require approval from an outside agency.

Irish more likely to intervene in illegal dumping than domestic violence
Survey finds intervention more likely in male-on-female violence than vice-versa

[..]

Violent incidents

Irish people are also far more likely to say they would intervene in a case of male-on-female domestic violence than in female-on-male domestic violence situation.

Sixty-three per cent of Irish people would be “willing or very willing” to step in if they saw a man hit a woman compared to 30 per cent if a woman hit a man. The EU average was 64/44 respectively.

Strumms wrote: »

I’ve never been in either side of an argument like that, but if it happened, or any big blow out row, and I get ‘told’ to leave my/our home, my answer is... “NO, this is my home, I’m happy and comfortable here...my name is on the paperwork...if you are uncomfortable yourself with being here, you have options, one of them is for YOU to leave”.

The fûck would I be walking out of a property I own or jointly own, worth xxx,xxx just because somebody is having a raging flounce and throwing toys left right and center....

iptba wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/helpline-for-male-domestic-abuse-victims-struggles-to-cope-amid-pandemic-surge-1.4512995

iptba wrote: »

Helpline for male domestic abuse victims struggles to cope amid pandemic surge

Calls to Men’s Aid Ireland are being missed amid 35% spike in level of demand

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/helpline-for-male-domestic-abuse-victims-struggles-to-cope-amid-pandemic-surge-1.4512995