Started by Hayley Foster, CEO of Women’s Safety NSW, put together this Change.Org campaign after the government recently persisted with an ill advised grant that funds couples counseling for domestic violence.
Couples counseling is shown to only be moderately effective in low risk environments, but leads to higher rates of violence and death for women living in highly dangerous environments. This grant was open to, predominantly, religious organisations. And many proffer counselors with no formal training or required knowledge of domestic violence and trauma care.
Couples counseling in and of itself is shown to increase rates of violence, and even death in over half of all participants. Doctors Against Violence Towards women have campaigned heavily against unthought out policies like this in the past, and continue to stand against it. Read the emotional story of one of our own, a fully qualified doctor, who fell victim to domestic violence, and had her life endangered by couples counseling.
Click here to sign the petition and let’s bring more attention to this unnecessary, and, frankly, dangerous initiative.
