Domestic Abuse Survivors Three Times More Likely to Experience Serious Mental Illness

A new study in the British Journal of Psychiatry on female survivors of intimate partner violence and risk of depression, anxiety and serious mental illness has found:

• Women who experience domestic abuse are three times more likely to experience serious mental illness
• Survivors are also twice as likely to have an existing mental illness
• Abuse is significantly under-reported in NHS records, with GP records showing only 0.5 per cent of women have domestic abuse recorded

Jemima Olchawski, Chief Executive of Agenda, the alliance for women and girls at risk says:

“This report adds to the very strong evidence base on the connection between abuse and poor mental health. Agenda’s own research shows more than half of women with a mental health problem has experienced some form of abuse.

“Yet mental health services often fail to recognise this link, or to even ask women about their experiences of abuse. At the same time, some domestic abuse services are not equipped to support women with serious mental illness. The result is women falling through the gaps in services, unable to get the support they need.

“Better identification of women who are experiencing abuse could help women escape perpetrators sooner and prevent mental health problems escalating. The Government’s Domestic Abuse Bill offers a significant opportunity to address these issues.

“Alongside investment in specialist support for survivors facing mental ill health, all those working in the public sector, including GPs, should be trained to ask women about their experiences of abuse and to offer them follow on support.”

Agenda’s Women in Mind campaign is calling for women and girls’ mental health to be made a priority and action taken to ensure they get the support they need, when they need it.