Organisations and services for women survivors of domestic abuse:

As a friend, family member, neighbour, or colleague of a woman experiencing domestic abuse, one of the most useful things you can do is to help her to access professional advice and support. It can be useful to know about these organisations, even if the survivor is not yet ready to recognise her experiences as abuse, or to reach out for specialist support.

You can contact many of these organisations yourself to ask for support, information, and advice about how you can assist a survivor. This can increase your awareness of the support options available; information which is really useful at the point when the survivor is ready to reach out for help.

You can contact most of these organisations anonymously, in other words, you can ask for advice about the situation without needing to tell them who you are, or who the person experiencing domestic abuse is.

People providing support to a friend, family member, neighbour, or colleague have asked us, in particular, for more information about the Police. Often people are unsure when to contact them, what will happen if they do, what the responsibilities of the Police are in situations of domestic abuse, and how to make sure that the Police meet their responsibilities. We have provided some information about what the police do in the table below, but we suggest that you also look at the Police and the Criminal Prosecution Process section of The Survivor’s Handbook produced by Women’s Aid.

Understandably, many survivors are nervous about contacting professionals. If the person you know indicates that they are ready to take this step, you can support them by creating opportunities to get in touch safely, for example by letting them use your computer or telephone. You could also telephone the organisations yourself, with the survivor sitting beside you, and hand over the phone to her when she is ready to speak. To help her to access face-to-face support, you could offer to drive her to appointments, accompany her (if this is what she wants), or offer childcare whilst she attends.

For some women, their GP (doctor) is the person they are most likely to tell. This is because doctors are seen as trusted individuals, who can help survivors to manage any health and wellbeing symptoms they experience as a result of abuse. GPs also have a role in referring people who have experienced domestic abuse for specialist support, and for recording details of abuse in the person’s medical record. This recorded information may be helpful at a later date if the abuse, or the relationship separation, results in a court case.

If the specialist support you are looking for is not provided by the organisations listed below, Women’s Aid have put together a list of useful links to other organisations. The Bright Sky directory of services (app and website) can also help you to find the services nearest to you.