Following several highly publicized alleged murders of ladies in Australia, the Albanian government made such a commitment this week over AUD 925 million over five years to address men’s violence against women. This includes up to $5,000 to support people escaping violent relationships.
However, to reduce and prevent gender-based and intimate partner violence, we also need to address the basis causes and perpetrators. These include alcohol and other drugs, trauma and mental health problems.
Why is this significant?
World Health Organization estimates 30% women world wide have experienced intimate partner violence, gender-based violence, or each. In Australia, 27% women you might have experienced intimate partner violence from a cohabiting partner; almost 40% Australian children are at risk of domestic violence.
By gender-based violence we mean violence or intentionally harmful behavior directed against an individual due to their gender. However, intimate partner violence specifically refers to violence and harassment that happens between current (or former) romantic partners. Domestic violence can extend beyond intimate partners to other relations.
These statistics underscore the urgent need to address not only the implications of such violence, but also its roots, including the experiences and behaviors of perpetrators.
What is the reference to mental health, trauma and drugs?
The links between mental illness, drug use, trauma and violence are complex.
When we look specifically at the link between mental illness and violence, most individuals with mental illness won’t change into violent. However, there’s evidence that individuals with serious mental illness could also be more likely to use violence.
Using alcohol and other drugs also increases the chance of domestic violence, including intimate partner violence.
ABOUT one in three incidents of intimate partner violence in a conjugal relationship are related to alcohol. They are more likely to end in physical harm and hospitalization. The risk of committing violence is even greater for individuals who also suffer from mental illness using alcohol or other drugs.
It is also vital to consider traumatic experiences. Most individuals who have experienced trauma don’t commit acts of violence, but such cases do occur high stakes trauma in individuals who change into aggressive.
For example, experiences of childhood trauma (reminiscent of witnessing physical abuse) may increase the chance committing domestic violence in maturity.
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Early traumatic experiences can affect the brain and body response to stress, which leads to increased fear and threat perception and difficulty regulating emotions. This may end up in aggressive reactions when faced with conflict or stress.
This stress response increases your risk problems with alcohol and drugsdeveloping Post-traumatic stress disorder (post-traumatic stress disorder) and increases the chance committing violence by a partner.
How can we solve these overlapping problems?
We can reduce intimate partner violence by addressing these overlapping issues and eliminating the basis causes and contributing aspects to violence.
Early intervention and treatment mental illness, injury (including post-traumatic stress disorder) and using alcohol and other drugs, could help reduce violence. Therefore, additional investments are needed. We also need more investment prevent mental health problemsand, above all, stopping the event of alcohol and drug use disorders.
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Trauma prevention from coming forward and supporting vulnerable people is crucial to ending what can often change into a vicious cycle of intergenerational trauma and violence.
Safe and supportive environments and relationships can protect children from mental health problems or further violence as they grow up and form their very own intimate relationships.
We also have to acknowledge that that is common impact of trauma and its impact on mental health, drug use and violence. This needs to be incorporated into policies and practices to reduce the variety of people who find themselves re-traumatized.
What about programs for perpetrators?
Most existing standard intervention programs for perpetrators not be taken under consideration links between trauma, mental health and intimate partner violence. Such programs normally have small Or mixed effects in regards to the perpetrators’ behavior.
But we could improve these programs with coordinated approach including concurrent treatment of mental illness, drug use and trauma.
Such “multiple” programs promise to significantly reduce violent behavior. However, we need more rigorous and large-scale evaluations of their effectiveness.
What needs to occur next?
It is crucial to each support surviving victims and improve interventions for perpetrators. However, intervention when violence occurs might be too late.
We must shift our efforts towards a broader, holistic approach to stopping and reducing intimate partner violence, including addressing the foremost perpetrators of violence we have described.
We also need to take a broader look at stopping intimate partner violence and gender-based violence.
We need developmentally appropriate education and skills-based programs for adolescents to prevent unhealthy relationship patterns from emerging before they change into established.
We also need to address social determinants of health that contribute to violence. This includes improving access to reasonably priced housing, employment opportunities and available health care support and treatment options.
All of this will likely be crucial if we are to break the cycle of intimate partner violence and improve outcomes for victims.
