With an unwavering commitment to nurturing every individual’s potential Vida continues to make a profound difference in the lives of survivors of abuse. Abuse and the number of suicides related to current or previous partners has outnumbered homicides for the second year according to the recently published report: Domestic Homicides and Victim Suicides Report 2022-2024
Prevention remains a focus but where survivors are living with the impact of abuse there are simply not enough specialist mental health and counselling services for them and hardly any funding for those services. An extra £300k has been allocated to Sheffield City Council as part of the £30m Government allocation through the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) which will support general increases in costs and gaps in services without any additional funding for counselling and therapy to support the long-term recovery of women and girls who are disproportionately impacted.
Vida welcomes the national Domestic Homicide project’s recommendation that domestic abuse is reflected in national suicide prevention strategies and urges the Government, through Department of Health & Social Care, to offer further grant funding opportunities following the grant allocation for 2024/2025.
Vida offers a safe haven for women and a path towards recovery and empowerment to overcome their experiences of domestic abuse and trauma. After attending, survivors tell us: 5 out of 6 no longer have suicidal thoughts; 6 out of 7 lower their depression and 6 out of 9 overcome their trauma symptoms. Without sustained funding it is feared that the lives of women survivors will continue to be put at risk.