Domestic abuse affects all women of all ages says leading charity

Solace, one of the leading domestic abuse charities in the UK are launching a toolkit created in collaboration with Dewis Choice to highlight how domestic abuse impacts older survivors. The toolkit details the ‘invisibility’ of older women and the barriers survivors can face when accessing support and gives advice on recognising the signs of abuse. In addition, they are hosting a free webinar on Thursday 25th November at 12pm – 1.15pm to support the launch of the toolkit and are inviting people to join.

The webinar will be supported by some fantastic guest speakers including Frank Mullane from Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA), Carrie Bower from Age UK, Sarah Wydall from Dewis Choice and Monsura Mamud from the Solace Silver project.

Domestic abuse can affect all women of all ages and Solace regularly work with older women and many of whom are over 70. It takes both courage and time to escape abuse and for older women it can be even harder to imagine a future after decades of abuse.

Alison Bird, Training Manager at Solace said “Solace Women’s Aid and Dewis Choice have collaborated to create the Supporting Older Survivors Toolkit: SOS Toolkit. Survivors of domestic abuse when they reach a certain age can end up under the radar – we want to make older survivors feel supported and heard. If you take the right approach to working with survivors in later life you can remove the barriers, the stigma and transform lives.”

Sarah Wydall from Dewis Choice said “Dewis Choice are delighted to be collaborating with Solace to produce a toolkit that has been informed by our longitudinal research. Domestic Abuse occurs across the life course, and it is imperative we work together to transform responses across sectors to meet the needs of a diverse group. This new resource provides invaluable information and advice on responding appropriately to trauma, barriers to help seeking and often overlooked areas such as adult child to parent violence and abuse. It is drawn directly from the lived experiences of three generations of older people, drawing on research capturing help-seeking experiences from crisis through to recovery. We hope that it will become the go to toolkit for all professionals that work in this field”.

To get tickets and attend this free online event, please visit Eventbrite – SOS Toolkit – Supporting Older Survivors

Solace regularly run training on supporting older survivors. If you’re interested in finding out more, email them on training@solacewomensaid.org