* *AVAILABLE TO THOSE WORKING IN WALES, UK ONLY**
The scale of domestic abuse related suicide in England and Wales, and the underlying links between domestic abuse and suicidality, have been acknowledged as a ‘known unknown’ for some time by academics, third sector experts and policy-makers. One study has suggested that 1/3 of all female suicide in England and Wales may have been caused by domestic abuse (Walby, S. (2004) ‘The Cost of Domestic violence’). A later report, ‘Safe and Sane Report’ for Southall Black Sisters (2011), documented that across a sample of 409 domestically abused women, 44% had contemplated suicide or self-harm and a further 18% had made attempts to do so. Jane Monckton Smith has recently extended her ‘homicide timeline’ research to produce a ‘suicide timeline’. If practitioners are able to identify suicidality in victims of domestic abuse and recognise at what stage of suicidality a victim is, then we can work to reduce risk of victims of domestic abuse suiciding in more effective ways.
This is an awareness raising course to encourage practitioners to better understand the links between domestic abuse and suicide and the risks. It also aims to help practitioners understand the experiences of families bereaved by suicide after domestic abuse and how best to support them.
Please contact trainingservices@storicymru.org.uk for more information.
**Please note that this course is being delivered with a strong health / trigger warning. We will be talking about children, young people and adults, but the course will focus on improving professional responses to sexual violence rather than the specifics of what sexual violence looks like because we recognise the risk of triggering or re-traumatising learners.**
Delivered via MS Teams in partnership with SafeLives and funded by the Welsh Government.
