“I feel reborn again. The counselling was really what I needed. Thank you for supporting me. I am really grateful and appreciate it profoundly.” Woman’s Trust client.
Before COVID 19, a little under half of the women reaching out to Woman’s Trust - which provides professional mental health support and counselling to help women deal with the emotional impact of domestic abuse – were reporting five or more forms of abuse, ranging from physical and emotional through to technological.
During lockdown, that figure rose to 65%. In the last year the percentage of women disclosing incidents of sexual violence increased from 29 per cent to 40 per cent, while reports of rape increased from 12 per cent to 24 per cent. Upon accessing the charity’s services, 48 per cent of women reported suffering depression, 44 per cent had suicidal thoughts while 98 per cent reported high stress and anxiety.
“Domestic abuse is the biggest single cause of depression in women, but the link between domestic abuse and mental health is not widely recognised within the health sector.” Heidi Riedel, CEO of Woman’s Trust.
The charity received a grant of almost £5,000 from our Assura Community Fund to provide 90 counselling sessions for nine women from Hammersmith and Fulham who were experiencing or had experienced domestic abuse.
Heidi added: “Although Woman’s Trust provides services across London, the number of women we can help is dependent on funding. In many boroughs, we have no funding and can help only a handful of women. In other boroughs we rely on Trusts and Foundations for support, but competition for funds is high. This is why support from Assura Community Fund has been critical to our progress this year.”
In the last year alone, the Trust supported 759 women. In that time:
- more than 90% of women who accessed the service reported improvements in stress/anxiety, self-care, confidence, interaction with others, sense of control of their future and self-esteem
- 78% reported improved relationships with their children and being better able to support them
- 60 per cent felt less depressed
- 69 per cent felt less suicidal
- 95 per cent felt safer.