Calls to organisation for men abused at home up 64% in two years

Voluntary organisation aims to end the stigma of male domestic abuse

The only service in Ireland offering support to male victims of domestic abuse has called for an end to the stigma which prevents men from seeking help.

Amen, a voluntary group providing a confidential helpline and support service for male victims of domestic abuse, has seen a huge increase in requests for help over the last two years.

Last year, Amen received 4,072 calls to its helpline and offered 325 one-to-one support meetings. This is a 24% increase from 2012, or a 64% increase over the two years from 2011.

Niamh Farrell, manager of Amen, said this increase was due to a combination of the charity “doing more to get people to come forward” and the fact that “it is becoming less acceptable to hit a man”. However, she said that men were still reluctant to talk about domestic abuse out of fear of not being believed.

Image

“People are sceptical about male victims of domestic abuse, because of society’s image of what a man is. We need more education and awareness to change this perception and to acknowledge that domestic abuse against men is a problem,” she said.

“If a man doesn’t look for help nobody can give it to him. They have to get past the shame and embarrassment and look for the help themselves. It is not going to get better, it is going to escalate and they have to think about the impact on children in these situations.”

According to its annual report, which was launched this week, more than 1,300 new male clients contacted Amen for help last year. Most of the men were aged between 40-50, 65% were married and 96% had children.

From the information gathered from disclosures to Amen, almost 700 children were living in a family home where domestic abuse occurred.

The report showed 4,580 instances of children witnessing abuse and the majority of these incidents involved children witnessing their mothers physically attacking their fathers.