Looking for views on how bad/good male victims of domestic abuse charities are?

[SPS73]

Hi everyone

My first post. I'm in the process of starting a male victims of domestic abuse charity and having tried to get help for myself in the past, was frustrated and left feeling hopeless by the services I pushed into that had dead numbers, no real help other than a phonecall, no legal advice, no "next step" advice, male charities that offered little in the way of support outside of pointing me to another phone-number etc.

If you feel able, I'd be grateful if anyone could give me their thoughts on where the reporting process for either yourselves or people you know, failed and why and maybe what you would suggest would need to implemented.

Thanks everyone and I hope this post isn't too stressful for anyone

[markovitz]

Hi,

Like you, I have experience of charities and agencies involved.

The main issue is that the authorities do not take the reports seriously and that there is no support for men like women have.

What men need is a charity like WA that have millions of pounds worth of funding to supply legal advice, barristers and support. Men only seem to have unqualified support, which as you say, is phone "this number".

Happy to support you on this.

Cheers

M

[Hidden]

Have you gathered data on the problems you wish to deal with. Have you looked at successful models of women’s services? As this is to be a Scottish service, what havens in the other nations may not exactly superimpose on what you can do.

Have you thought about reaching out to other services operating in Scotland. Making an existing service better may often be a better route than setting up another service.

You will, of course, need to consider issues around funding, training of volunteers, safeguarding, access to legal advice etc.

[SPS73 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks so much for your reply.

Yes, I previously over the last 5 years, have tried to get help from all the charities available to men. My case was a little more public than most and I requested help that the charities were ill equipped to deal with with advice of talking to victim support being the most common response.

I've sent emails to the charities again and have recieved responses that "someone" will contact me and that was 5 days ago.

Ironically, womens aid have been the most useful contact and managed to point me in the direction of a contact that was able to support me in person but again, short lived and not really what was required.

I've actually been involved and managed to utilize current services in Dundee where I live since 2017 and by going around the people in charge of services and being more direct, I've helped solve many problems for male victims. It's proof that the way these things are setup are ineffective and people in these positions really ned training or assessed.

Anyway, that's my rant over and I totally appreciate you guys taking the time to comment and advise