This week

The real conversation

Plus…

Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness 

and

The Wednesday Whisper

 

Charity begins at home. So does violence.

My blogs on the topic of domestic violence generate the fewest responses. It makes no sense because this is the biggest problem we face in our society. If our families are not functioning or healthy we cannot expect society to function well and when one in four women experience domestic violence this means it is very likely that someone in your family and friendship groups is likely to be suffering in silence right now.

Of course, I can play to the audience and ignore the topic because my readers seem disinterested or I can work harder to get your attention.

Here are some sobering facts:

£1.6bn for physical and mental health costs
£1.2bn in criminal justice costs
£268m in social services costs
£185.7m in housing and refuge costs
£366.7m in civil legal costs
£1.8bn in lost economic output

  • One in four women experience domestic violence in their lifetime

In one year, 1.2 million women reported experiences of domestic abuse in England and Wales

The cap on the number of violent crimes published is set at five per victim, so if a woman experienced 100 incidents of domestic violence, only five would make it into the official data. Research shows that if the cap were removed, the number of incidents of domestic violence would increase by approximately 70%.

  • One in five children are exposed to domestic abuse

 

Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness

I ask myself what is it we’re not teaching our children? Then I wonder whether domestic abuse is so rife that it would be almost impossible to design it out of our children because they repeat what they see modelled no matter how much we teach them something different.

The Wednesday Whisper

Is this so big a topic that it is overwhelming to imagine how to deal with it?

Would you be willing to send this out to anyone you think might be interested in getting a little dose of mindfulness each week?