Published date:
A report published today has called for greater funding for dedicated services and support for male victims of domestic and sexual abuse in Northern Ireland.
Mapping Services for Male Adult and Child Victim-Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Abuse in Northern Ireland found that greater funding is needed to make sure that dedicated services can be provided in a sustainable way.
The report was carried out to gain a clearer understanding of the current support infrastructure available to male victims of domestic and sexual abuse and identify service gaps.
Research was carried out by Dr Colm Walsh from Queen's University Belfast and Dearbhaile Slane, Andy Bray and Jessica Scott from the Centre for Effective Services.
The researchers carried out a desktop review of existing services, as well as carrying out a survey and interviews with service providers.
Dearbhaile Slane from Centre for Effective Services said:
"The organisations which participated in our research demonstrate a real commitment to supporting male victim-survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, but with very limited resources.
“The evidence we were able to gather points to the need for increased service provision to meet this significant need, adequate funding to enable services to deliver in the long term, and more awareness-raising to ensure men can access support. There is also a need for more in depth understanding of the barriers to accessing support for male victim-survivors and for them to have their voices heard."
Commissioner Designate for Victims of Crime Geraldine Hanna added:
“All victim-survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, whether they are male or female, should have access to dedicated specialist support services.
“This mapping exercise provides important information for policy makers who are keen to tackle the issue of domestic and sexual abuse.
“This goes beyond the justice system. This is a pressing public health issue with significant implications for victim-survivors and our wider society.
“Male victim-survivors face specific barriers in coming forward to report their abuse and tackling the scourge of domestic and sexual abuse must mean that we are committed to breaking those barriers down.
“I am grateful to the researchers for their work, and I will continue to work closely with the Executive and others to push for greater support for all those who need it.”
Key recommendations from the report are:
- Service improvements
- Further exploration of gaps in provision e.g. expansion of refuges/shelters.
- Invest in prevention, early intervention and recidivism supports for perpetrators of male abuse.
- Strengthening of services and supports should go alongside awareness raising around prevalence and service availability to ensure system capacity to respond to an increase in referrals.
- Lived experience
- Centre the voices of those with lived experience in service development.
- Undertake some form of engagement with men and boys to learn about their needs, barriers they face and ideal service delivery.
- Undertake further research with services and service users around the provision of generalist (gender-neutral) and tailored support (for men, LGBTQA+ and other minoritised communities).
- More and sustainable funding
- Develop funding arrangement which ensures sustainable and reliable funding.
- Enhance the flexibility of current service delivery model. This should ensure that sufficient time is afforded to the victim-survivor to build trust with support and extending provision of support where necessary.
- Awareness raising
- Raise awareness of the gender-inclusive Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy
- Develop educational tools and initiatives to dispel social myths around domestic and sexual abuse and male victims/survivors.
- Undertake awareness raising initiatives for victim-survivors regarding the availability of supports.
- Undertake awareness raising initiatives for professionals regarding the availability of supports for male victim-survivors.
- Develop a contextually relevant evidence base for Northern Ireland
- Improved statistics on prevalence of abuse, disaggregated by age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation.
- Data on access to interventions and effectiveness of interventions.
- Partnership working for the sector
- Promote interconnectivity and integration of services and explore the potential for creating a wrap-around service or support hub model.
- Implement approaches to foster positive relationship within the wider domestic and sexual abuse sector.