Thinking about safety

May 1

4 min read

Prevention is better than cure as they say. I grew up in the 90s when people were raving all night, people chose drugs over alcohol, nowadays there's a real culture to drink as much as you can and get as drunk as you can as well as dabbling in drugs.

At work, I deal with a lot of assaults, as well as sexual assaults to include rape, drink spiking and jobs involving domestic violence and stalking/harassment. A lot of the time you can guarantee alcohol and/or illegal substances were involved in some way. It's not always the case but it magnifies the chances of something happening.

There's a lot of media attention surrounding Violence against Woman and Girls (VAWG). There is still a real feeling of female inequality in society today, this manifests as various forms of abuse such as sexual violence, domestic abuse, stalking, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, honour based abuse, online exploitation of females, young and old and misogyny. These types of abuse disproportionately affect females but men and boys can also be victims.

I was lucky not to have heard of the TikTok influencer Andrew TATE and haven't seen any of his social media posts by chance on my social media but have recently looked him up very briefly after his name came back into the news after the 'Adolescence' drama (I really enjoyed it and the young male actor was amazing, he had no formal training, when he yawns in one of the scenes, I hated him, he was convincing). TATE appears to have shot to fame for his derogatory comments and misogyny towards women. I'm not sure if he's just a very manipulative intelligent business man, articles state he's earned himself millions from his controversial posts about domestic abuse, rape, a woman's place being in the home, controlling your woman. He charges a fee for people to join an exclusive website that i'm sure will teach his followers how to treat women. I can't even be bothered to give this man air time, I want to read about what he preaches and watch his clips but if I do i'll be earning him more money so i'm purposely not going to search for him.

As a woman I feel we still need to look over our shoulder and look out for each other. There have been some horrendous stories in the press over the past few years where men in trusted positions have used that power to kidnap, rape and murder women. An example of such a person is a man called Wayne COUZENS who, horrifically, was a servicing Police officer when he kidnapped, raped and then murdered a lady called Sarah EVERARD.

Getting help

If you are in immediate danger or it's an emergency call 999.

You can make an appointment to see your doctor, they will be able to signpost you to help, it will also act as a record and if you are injured, the injuries can be documented with your consent.

'Injury capture' app - download from Google and App stores

An app that lets you record injuries sustained during domestic violence.

If you can't add the app to your phone because of safety reasons, ask a trusted friend to keep the app on their phone.

'Bright Sky' app

Looks like a weather app on your phone but once opened takes you to a supportive webpage that lets you document incidents, capture images, seek advice and get support in your area.

If you would like to report an offence then contact your local Police force.

They will be able to guide you through the process and go through your options, our first and main priority is your safety and wellbeing.

Freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge

0808 200 0247

www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk

Institute for Addressing Strangulation (ifas.org.uk )

www.ifas.org.uk

Refuge - National Domestic Abuse Helpline

0808 200 0247

www.refuge.org.uk

Galop (for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people)

National LGBT+ Domestic Abuse Helpline