I have a friend who I am very worried about. She left her abusive husband in another state with her two children and a no contact DV for 2 years. (He was allowed contact with the children only by her written concent). He has broken the DV several times I don't know if she has reported it but nothing seems to have happened.
Recently she got into another relationship that was also very violent - and an AVO insued.
On top of all this she allowed her husband to have contact with her children and only one of them was returned.
My question is this, where can I go to find her help. She isn't proactive enough at the moment (I think she may be suffering from depression to be honest and who could blame her).
Does anyone have any advice on what i could do or where I can reach out? Anyone been in similar situations? I am at a loss of how to help her.
1 Replies
So scary, it's really important that she gets herself some counselling etc. in the short term so that she can get a plan to get herself safe and in the long term to work out why she gets into abusive relationships. I learnt the hard way that you can give someone the information but you can't make her use it. There are domestic abuse hotlines that offer over the phone advice. Unfortunately these guys are really hard to catch and are great at talking themselves out of trouble! I was frustrated that the person I know didn't seem to take the situation seriously enough and refused to move house even though it would have been very easy to do and would have solved a lot of the problems. It took for him to turn up and hold her hostage for her to get the idea that moving was more than worth the effort. Sadly it's a long road ahead and hard to watch.