Cambridgeshire deaf charity backs 'critical' funding in domestic abuse crackdown
It says many deaf women may not know what this abuse is
A charity says deaf women in the county may be more at risk of domestic abuse than those who can hear.
The Cambridgeshire Deaf Association (CDA) sees around a dozen cases of this type of abuse for men and women are referred to them each year.
While the charity has received funding from Darryl Preston - the county's police and crime commissioner - as well from Cambridgeshire county and Peterborough city councils to offer emotional and practical support and advocacy to local deaf or hearing-impaired victims and survivors.
"Without the funding, it would be much harder (to help victims and survivors)," Andy Palmer, chief executive at CDA, said.
"We'd have to devote more time to try and raise the money from other places to get it done.
"It's critical to be able to do this, to be able to employ the staff, to deliver the training and to support women in those situations."
Trauma support
Two of the charity’s staff have trained as Independent Domestic Abuse Advisers (IDVAS), which gives them the skills to provide advice, support and information to help survivors with the practical and emotional challenges impacting their safety and wellbeing in British Sign Language.
This trauma-informed support also extends to risk assessments, safety planning, support during police investigations or during the criminal justice process and help accessing healthcare or benefits.
The team has also developed a British Sign Language version of the Freedom Programme with colleagues from Women’s Aid to support female survivors of domestic abuse and understand patterns of male coercive and controlling behaviour and their impact.
Andy said many deaf women may not understand what domestic abuse is.
"Perpetrators might be well aware it's much harder for a deaf woman to report the abuse in the first place and sometimes when a deaf person is vulnerable, that perpetrator can use that vulnerability and that's when it can turn into domestic abuse," he said.
"The exact reasons (for abuse against deaf women), I'm not totally sure, but from our experience, it's to do with language and information deprivation and a generic vulnerability of deaf women in those situations.
"It (abuse) comes up a lot in our drop-ins where we try and educate that way, through advocates who meet women and might help identify the situation they're in, so I think it's about consistent, long-term support from a trusted organisation."
Numbers of deaf survivors of domestic abuse 'will come down'
Deaf participants who completed the Freedom Programme described it as ‘empowering’ with one survivor saying “the first session was really interesting and now I want to know more."
Another praised the support offered by one of the IDVA-trained staff, saying they had "so much stress but with you by my side, it made me feel much better, so thank you so much CDA, for being there for me.”
Andy believes CDA will not stop helping deaf survivors of domestic abuse as the need for mainstream services to help them remains an issue
"It's much harder for deaf people to get support from mainstream organisations because of the communication barriers," he added.
"What this funding does is it helps speed that process up and raises the amount of knowledge (around domestic abuse amongst deaf people).
"I don't think we'll ever get rid of it (abuse against deaf women), but women understanding what abuse is and how to report it, we'll see numbers come down."