Victims Of Domestic Violence More Likely To Suffer Serious Mental Illness

According to new research, undertaken by Birmingham University, women who suffer from domestic violence are three times more likely to develop severe mental illness in the future.

The research focused on 18,547 domestic abuse victims, from 1995 to 2017, who had told their doctors of the violence they had suffered. The research found that:

• Almost 50% of the women had a mental illness already detected as a result of the abuse.
• The remaining 50% of the people surveyed were identified as being twice as likely to develop problems relating to anxiety, and three times as likely to suffer from depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. This group was also identified as being twice as likely to require prescription medication to help deal with the mental effects of their abuse.

What is also concerning is that the study has highlighted that some women who experience abuse from a loved one are hiding the physical and mental effects that it is having on them from their local GPs.

According to official crime statistics, roughly one in four UK women suffer domestic violence during their lifetime, however, this figure is contradicted in this study, which found that less than one in 100 women suffer abuse. This possibly implies that many victims are concealing from their doctor the fact that they are experiencing domestic violence.

What can the Courts do for victims of domestic abuse?

A person dealing with the fact that they have been abused by a loved one can obviously be a traumatising experience. The Family Law Courts offer protection to domestic violence sufferers where the offender is closely associated with them, such as a partner, parent, or another family member, and can enforce the following:

• Non-molestation orders – these types of orders are designed to circumvent abuse, threats of violence or harassing and pestering, and molesting behaviour.
• Occupation orders – these orders exclude the abuser from the family home, or prevent them from coming within a specified distance of it.

If these orders are breached then the Police can make an arrest. The person breaching the order will also be guilty of contempt of Court and may be sent to prison.